Brain-computer interface company Neuralink announced on 25 May that it has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a clinical study in humans. Neuralink made the announcement on Twitter: "We are excited to share that we have received the FDA's approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study." The tweet said that the approval "represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people". The firm also said that the recruitment is not yet open for the trial, and it has yet to give any further details about what the trial will entail. Neuralink was formed in 2016 by Elon Musk and a group of scientists and engineers with the ultimate aim of making devices that interface with the human brain – both reading information from neurons as well as feeding information directly back into the brain.

Ford has become the first major automaker to leap into bed with Tesla after the US government pushed to make EV charging more widely accessible. The carmaker has signed a deal, starting spring 2024, so selected Ford EVs can slurp down power at some Tesla Supercharger stations. As part of the pact, Ford said, from the 2025 model year, it'll switch to Tesla's open-source North American Charging Standard (NACS) on its vehicles. Meanwhile, existing models that still use the (more or less) global standard Combined Charging System (CCS) will be able to pick up a Tesla-designed adapter to bridge the gap. The deal is surprising, especially given the relative power, size and prestige of the two companies involved. Ford, one of the world's biggest car makers, is ceding control of its charger future to a relative minnow, albeit one that built a sizable own-brand charging network.

Neuralink has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the launch of its first clinical study in humans. "We are excited to share that we have received the FDA's approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study!" Neuralink's official Twitter account wrote on Thursday.(opens in a new tab) "This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people." The neurotechnology company isn't recruiting test subjects just yet, and hasn't released any information on exactly what the clinical trial will involve. Even so, fans of Neuralink founder Elon Musk are already chomping(opens in a new tab) at(opens in a new tab) the(opens in a new tab) bit(opens in a new tab) to implant questionable experimental technology in their grey matter. Neuralink aims to develop implantable devices that will let people control computers with their brain, as well as restore vision or mobility to people with disabilities.

Neuralink Corp., Elon Musk's brain-implant company, said it received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct human clinical trials. "This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people," the company said Thursday in a tweet. The FDA and Neuralink did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk's startup is developing a small device that will link the brain to a computer, consisting of electrode-laced wires. Placing the device requires drilling into the skull. The approval "is really a big deal," said Cristin Welle, a former FDA official and an associate professor of neurosurgery and physiology at the University of Colorado.

United States regulators have given approval for Elon Musk's start-up Neuralink to test its brain implants on people. Neuralink said on Thursday that it received clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the first human clinical study of implants which are intended to let the brain interface directly with computers. "We are excited to share that we have received the FDA's approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study," Neuralink said in a post on Twitter – which is owned by Musk. Neuralink prototypes, which are the size of a coin, have so far been implanted in the skulls of monkeys, demonstrations by the startup showed. With the help of a surgical robot, a piece of the skull is replaced with a Neuralink disk, and its wispy wires are strategically inserted into the brain, an early demonstration showed.

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-implant company, said on Thursday it had received a green light from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to kickstart its first in-human clinical study, a critical milestone after earlier struggles to gain approval. Musk has predicted on at least four occasions since 2019 that his medical device company would begin human trials for a brain implant to treat severe conditions such as paralysis and blindness. Yet the company, founded in 2016, only sought FDA approval in early 2022 – and the agency rejected the application, seven current and former employees told Reuters in March. The FDA had pointed out several concerns to Neuralink that needed to be addressed before sanctioning human trials, according to the employees. Major issues involved the lithium battery of the device, the possibility of the implant's wires migrating within the brain and the challenge of safely extracting the device without damaging brain tissue.

Chinese scientists claim to have designed a brain implant that allows a monkey to control a robotic arm using just its mind. Researchers at Nankai University shared the announcement on May 5, praising it as a breakthrough that will improve the lives of people with disabilities. The brain-computer transforms electroencephalogram (EEG) signals into the animal's control instructions to navigate the machine with food attached. The research has not been peer-reviewed, and the claims - which cannot be verified independently - are only available in a statement on the university's website. 'The trial was led by the team of Professor Duan Feng of Nankai University and jointly completed with the General Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (301 Hospital) and Shanghai Xinwei Medical Technology Co., Ltd,' the announcement reads.

Whether you love him or hate him, Elon Musk is the mastermind behind some of the most ingenuous technology projects of the modern era. The billionaire entrepreneur is the boss of carmaker Tesla, private space firm SpaceX and brain-computer interface startup Neuralink, among other projects. But Musk – who routinely tops the list as the world's richest person – became more infamous than ever when he bought Twitter last autumn. Here, MailOnline takes a look at all the companies Musk has invested in, from Zip2 back in the 1990s to his new artificial intelligence venture. Musk has vowed to create his own'trustworthy and reliable' AI chatbot called'TruthGPT', as a more'truthful alternative' to ChatGPT. Musk has previously tweeted that we need'TruthGPT' - a chatbot that would not censor its replies Zip2, Musk's first enterprise, was founded in California along with his brother Kimbal and their friend, the late Greg Kouri, back in 1995.

Have you ever remembered something for your shopping list while cooking or working out, and couldn't grab your phone to note it down? Soon you may be able to log your groceries using only your mouth, thanks to a smart retainer developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The device, MouthPad, connects to smartphones or computers via Bluetooth, and allows the user to select buttons by sweeping their tongue across a trackpad chip. They can left click by pressing it, and right click by making a'sip' gesture. The team from startup Augmental, a spinoff from MIT Media Lab, hope their invention will help those with impaired hand control to live more independently.

This week, we chat with Senior Editor Andrew Tarantola about Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain computer interface (BCI) company. The FDA reportedly denied approval for human trials last week--Andy explains why that happened, as well as what BCIs could mean for humans in the future. Also, Cherlynn dives into the accessibility news from Microsoft's Ability Summit. Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments!