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The Angels

Updated Tuesday, February 20, 2024-20:28

  • Neuroscience Elon Musk claims that his company Neuralink has implanted its first brain chip in a human being

  • Interview "Elon Musk's brain implant is not the first, but it is less invasive and more efficient than others"

Elon Musk, founder of the Neuralink company, assured this Tuesday that the first patient

implanted with a brain chip from this

technology company is now capable of controlling a computer mouse through his thinking.

"

He seems to have fully recovered with no harmful effects that we know of

and is able to control the mouse and move it around the screen just by thinking," said the technology magnate through a Spaces session on the X platform.

Until this first implant, which was inserted last month, these types of brain applications

had been developed in only one direction

: from the brain to the outside (generally a computer that processes the signals), but the Neuralink project aims to be able to transfer information also in the other direction, towards the brain.

The startup Neuralink has specifically focused on designing implants for humans capable of interpreting brain signals in order to control different technologies and so that

people who have lost senses such as vision

, touch or speech can recover them.

Recently, the company specified that they were working in parallel with two types of implants, one to restore vision "even in those who have never had it" and another to

restore basic bodily functions in people with

paralysis due to spinal cord damage.

Neuralink began recruiting patients for its

first-in-human clinical trial

in the fall, after receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May.

Musk has big ambitions for Neuralink. He believes it would facilitate

rapid surgical insertions to treat diseases such as obesity

, autism, depression and schizophrenia. Neuralink, which was valued at around $5 billion last year, has faced repeated calls for scrutiny regarding its security protocols. Reuters

reported last month

that the company was fined for violating U.S. Department of Transportation rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials.