Elon Musk says an 'awesome' Neuralink update is coming soon, and the first human patient after that

Neuralink plans to test its brain machine interface technology with 4 of its N1 chips installed under patients' skin. Elon Musk believes that hooking our brains up to computers can help humans overcome disabilities and injuries and eventually compete with ever-smarter artificial intelligence. The billionaire said Sunday that his side startup Neuralink will show off an update to its developing brain-computer interface technology later this year that will be, in a word, "awesome." Last July, Musk said that the tech has already allowed a monkey to control a computer with its brain in tests and that he hoped "aspirationally" to have the device in a human patient with brain or spinal cord injuries, or congenital defects, by the end of 2019. That didn't pan out, and Musk now says it could happen "as soon as this year." He chimed in Sunday on a Twitter thread from noted tech investor and Tesla Motors true believer Cathie Wood that was originally published in mid-January.