Elon Musk's brain-implant company Neuralink last week received regulatory approval to conduct the first clinical trial of its experimental device in humans. But the billionaire executive's bombastic promotion of the technology, his leadership record at other companies and animal welfare concerns relating to Neuralink experiments have raised alarm. "I was surprised," said Laura Cabrera, a neuroethicist at Penn State's Rock Ethics Institute about the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration to let the company go ahead with clinical trials. Musks' erratic leadership at Twitter and his "move fast" techie ethos raise questions about Neuralink's ability to responsibly oversee the development of an invasive medical device capable of reading brain signals, Cabrera argued. "Is he going to see a brain implant device as something that requires not just extra regulation, but also ethical consideration?" she said.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said his Neuralink company is seeking permission to test its brain implant in people soon. In a "show and tell" presentation live streamed Wednesday night, Musk said his team is in the process of asking U.S. regulators to allow them to test the device. He said he thinks the company should be able to put the implant in a human brain as part of a clinical trial in about six months, though that timeline is far from certain. Musk's Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking brains to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications. The field dates back to the 1960s, said Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington.

Elon Musk's neuroscience startup Neuralink Corp. is expected to give a progress report on its brain-implant technology in a highly anticipated streamed event Wednesday night. In a tweet last week, the company teased a demo for the event, which begins at 9 p.m. New York time, with a short video that slowly spelled out the message "please join us for a show and tell." Some outside researchers said the video may indicate that a Neuralink device has been used to decode brain signals to type words on a screen, although they speculated that it would most likely be through a monkey or a wearable device. Neuralink has been testing its implant technology on nonhuman primates for several years, including in April 2021, when the company released a video showing that a monkey implanted with two Neuralink devices could play a videogame called Pong as the device translated its brain activity into commands with the help of machine-learning software. Other researchers have managed to use a brain-computer interface to enable monkeys to produce words on a computer screen.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's most secretive company -- debuted "a working Neuralink device" in the firm's first public event since July 2019, according to a tweet from Musk. The event showcased the Link device installation, how a living animal (in this case, a pig) can function normally after having one removed, and the kind of data collected via a Neuralink device. The event was scheduled for August 28, at 6:00 PM EDT, and streamed live from Neuralink's YouTube page at roughly 6:40 PM EDT. All of the Neuralink V.0.9's 1,024 channels are capable of recording and stimulating. There is compression and extraction of signal that happens much faster than the speed of the brain in terms of signal resolution.

Neuralink, Elon Musk's neurotechnology startup that is developing interfaces to connect human minds to computers, held a big event yesterday to announce what progress they had made over the last one year. For the uninitiated, Neuralink aims to help people with severe neurological disabilities via devices that can be implanted in the brain. Neurons, which are the basic working units of the nervous system, transmit signals to other parts of the body. All of that information exchange happens over minuscule electrical signals. With the Neuralink device in place, patients should be able to regain or improve upon the effects of neurological injuries.

Elon Musk-backed Neuralink shared a progress update late last week on its brain-computer interface. The implantable hardware platform was shown working in a pig named Gertrude. When Gertrude touched an object with her snout, neurons captured by Neuralink's technology (which had been embedded in Gertrude's brain two months prior) fired in a visualization on a television monitor. Musk asserted that someday the company would be able to embed a Neuralink device in a human brain, in under an hour, without using general anesthesia. "You open a piece of skull," Musk said.

Elon Musk has said that his secretive neurotech firm Neuralink will demonstrate a working "device," presumably a brain-machine interface, at 6PM ET on Friday. Musk has spoken repeatedly about his belief that BMI devices are needed to help humans keep up with AI by supplementing our brainpower, but right now, his goal is much simpler: to create an implantable device that lets people control phones or computers with their mind. Musk initially announced the August 28th "progress update" back in July, and has now offered more details on what will be shown. He says the update will include the unveiling of a second-generation robot designed to attach the company's technology to the brain, and a demo of neurons "firing in real-time," though it's not clear exactly what is meant by this. Even compared to Musk's other ventures like Tesla and SpaceX, Neuralink is ambitious.

Elon Musk has revealed more details about a promised development update for Neuralink, the brain-computer interface designed to help folks with severe brain injuries. Musk said the company will show a "working Neuralink device" during a live webcast on Friday, August 28th at 3PM PT/6PM ET. Last summer, Neuralink showed off its progress at a detailed launch event. A "sewing machine" robot would plant thread-like electrodes deep in to a human brain, which would connect to a pod worn behind the ear. That could then transmit brain signals over Bluetooth, allowing subjects to control a computer or have their brain activity monitored.