Elon Musk Says Neuralink Just Did its First-in-Human Clinical Trial

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s startup working on brain implants to connect humans to computers and potentially help people with paralysis has just gone through its first-in-human clinical trial. Elon Musk posted on X yesterday that the unknown patient is “recovering well”, and that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.”

Neuralink was founded back in 2016, and the company did animal testing on monkeys, pigs, and other animals before the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first clinical trials back in May 2023. Neuralink later opened a recruitement program to determine if its brain implant can detect the neural activity of a person with quadriplegia so they can control a smartphone or computer with their thoughts.

Elon Musk announced yesterday that the first Neuralink product is named “Telepathy”, and that initial users will be people who have lost the use of their limbs. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk explained yesterday.

Enables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.

Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs.

Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2024

Neuralink created its own surgical robot to perform the surgeries, and the company says that its implant is cosmetically invisible. Back in 2022, Elon Musk said that he was willing to test one of Neuralink’s brain implant himself once then technology is ready

Except for Elon Musk’s posts, Neuralink hasn’t communicated on its current clinical trials on humans. The company’s previous testing on animals has been the source of controversy, and a report from Wired from September 2023 revealed how the company hid details about how primates died after receiving Neuralink implants.

Along with SpaceX, Neuralink is one of Elon Musk’s “moonshot” projects, and the startup is definitely working in what could be described as uncharted territories. And there’s probably a long way to go before brain-computer interfaces like Neuralink can be safely commercialized.