The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Neuralink's attempt to trademark the product names Telepathy and Telekinesis, citing pending applications by another person for the same trademarks. Neuralink, the brain implant company co-founded by Elon Musk, filed to trademark the names in March. But in letters sent to Neuralink in August, the trademark office is refusing to allow the applications to move forward. It says Wesley Berry, a computer scientist and co-founder of tech startup Prophetic, previously filed trademark applications for Telepathy in May 2023 and Telekinesis in August 2024. Prophetic is building a wearable headset to induce lucid dreaming, but only Berry is the author of the trademark applications, not Prophetic.

Elon Musk's brain implant company, Neuralink, has filed applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to exclusively own the names Telepathy, Telekinesis, and others for future products. Neuralink, which Musk cofounded in 2016, is developing technology known as a brain-computer interface, a system that decodes brain activity to control an output device. Musk has said that the company's first product will be called Telepathy and will allow people with paralysis the ability to control a computer or phone just by thinking. But the Neuralink trademark application suggests that the company has ambitions of its technology enabling telepathic communication not just with electronic devices, but between human beings. Neuralink's interface involves a brain implant that collects neural signals and software that translates those signals into cursor movements on a computer screen.

Elon Musk's technological predictions may sometimes seem ripped straight from the pages of science fiction. And now the billionaire has made one of his most stunning claims yet, as he says his Neuralink brain chips will one day let paralyzed people walk again. His claims come as Neuralink shared a video of one of the first human patients playing chess telepathically. The chip currently enables the brain to connect with computers, but Musk claims it could one day let the brain communicate with paralyzed parts of the body. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Musk wrote: 'Long term, it is possible to shunt the signals from the brain motor cortex past the damaged part of the spine to enable people to walk again and use their arms normally.'

Man's evolutionary quest has taken us from the bottom of the ocean to deep space, now science and technology join forces to expand beyond our physical realm and explore new frontiers of communication. Elon Musk's Neuralink app, a new kind of brain interface being developed, one of several, would allow you to control your iOS device, keyboard, and mouse, just by thinking about it. When you stop to think about it, even the telephone was invented to meet the needs of long-distance communication. Both the application and the implications are numerous. Consider the endless possibilities of increasing the brain's channels of communication. These methods could be employed to treat a wide range of neurological disorders, restore sensory or movement functions, and without a doubt change the way we interact with one another.

As if solar-powered homes, and cars, and gigawatt factories along with his Space X ventures weren't enough already, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has another outlandish plan for humanity – a wizard-hat you might say, for our brains. Tesla and Space X are already redefining humanity's future, but Neuralink, a platform that would use futurist technology to augment our brains could alter our world even more. With a 36K explainer showing us exactly how Neuralink supported brain-hacking will work, Elon Musk has laid out plans to bring us to the future in a few short years. Among other claims, Neuralink promises to make human to human telepathy possible. This news makes some very excited, but others are wary.

Last week, Elon Musk dashed off 125 characters announcing a remarkably ambitious plan to send Amtrak to an early grave. "Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins," he proclaimed in a tweet. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter. Yet something about this particular moonshot seemed off.

Researchers have created a device that lets someone whisper to another person up to 30 meters away. The wearable device uses ultrasound to beam a person's words directly to a specific person, without anyone else hearing what's being said. While the device is still in its prototype phase, the researchers say that it could be used to help soldiers communication discreetly. The ultrasonic speaker system can be configured in two different ways: Ultra band (A) and sonic chest (B). The ultra band system consists of a bent surface with 12x5 ultrasonic speakers worn on the forehead.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, by way of blogger and cartoonist Tim Urban, has revealed in a 36,400-word illustrated explainer the thinking behind his new company Neuralink and its mission to use brain implants to directly link human minds to computers. The post argues that we should augment the slow, imprecise communication of our voices with a direct brain-to-computer linkup. This would permit both telepathy between people and advantageous relations with artificial intelligence, says Musk. Musk even gives a time line. He says that within eight to 10 years healthy people could be getting brain implants as new computer interfaces. The problem with the post is that, despite its length, Musk does not reveal how he's going to do it.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, by way of blogger and cartoonist Tim Urban, has revealed in a 36,400-word illustrated explainer the thinking behind his new company Neuralink and its mission to use brain implants to directly link human minds to computers. The post argues that we should augment the slow, imprecise communication of our voices with a direct brain-to-computer linkup. This would permit both telepathy between people and advantageous relations with artificial intelligence, says Musk. Musk even gives a time line. He says that within eight to 10 years healthy people could be getting brain implants as new computer interfaces. The problem with the post is that, despite its length, Musk does not reveal how he's going to do it.

A world where you can download your personality on to a computer to create your own avatar may sound like something from a science fiction novel. But according to Dr Michio Kaku, this'immortal world' could soon be a reality. He claims that soon we will be able to go to speak to loved even after they die, by keeping them alive through virtual reality. Dr Kaku was born in California on 24 January 1947. He led a distinguished academic career, attending Harvard University and the University of California, Berkely – where he received his PhD in 1972.