ELON MUSK: From Your Cars, to Your Social Media, to Your Brain

Many people don’t know, but some do, about the neural implant company co-owned by Elon Musk called Neuralink. Musk described his long-term goals with Neuralink in November, stating that said goals may sound a little “esoteric.” Neuralink works by digital interfacing directly with the brain, via a microchip implanted in the brain just beneath the skull. You can’t see the neural implant; it is miniaturized to the point where it matches the thickness of the piece of the skull that was removed.

Immediately upon hearing this, one might draw some dark conclusions concerning the implications that Neuralink presents. What would happen if the implant malfunctioned? Are we taking Artificial Intelligence too far in its journey, and trying to develop superintelligence? These are important questions that cannot be ignored. However, Musk asserts that he is confident that they will solve many brain and spine injury issues along the way to the final development of Neuralink. One of the major medical applications of Neuralink, for instance, is to help cure quadriplegics by reading the signals from the brain, as well as writing signals from the brain. This means that Neuralink can be used to communicate with the nervous system, if you have a severed spinal cord or neck.

In a 30-minute presentation that can be seen on YouTube, Musk tells his audience that we are all “de-facto cyborgs anyway,” citing the fact that our devices are now essentially extensions of ourselves. As such, we have become accustomed to having access to information almost instantaneously. But what if we could access it even faster? One benefit of direct interfacing with the brain is the elimination of limitations. He cites that although our devices are extensions of ourselves, (thus the cyborg comparison) we are still limited by (quite literally) how quickly we can “move our thumbs,” meaning how fast we can actually type to send or receive information on these devices. Neuralink does away with physical limitations such as these.

Going From Prototype To Product

Musk compares this process to going to the moon. The idea of it is easy, but the execution is 100 times more difficult. 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. The difficulty comes from balancing quality control with the economics of developing such a complex concept. The product must be safe, reliable, must work under a wide range of circumstances, must be affordable and done at scale. Similar to our everyday devices, the neural implant consists of software, batteries, radio, and conductive charging. The hypothesis being that the best thing to interpret the signals from a bio-neural net is a digital neural net. However, another part of this process is, inevitably, testing and clinical trials.

Neuralink remains cautious and careful about testing the device on humans. They’ve performed a range of offline testing before even implanting in animals. They have brain simulators that emulate the aesthetic and the texture of the brain, for instance. The company has submitted most of its paperwork for approval to the FDA and expects to install Neuralink in the first human within 6 months. Once Neuralink was implanted in animals, they could complete tasks such as telegraphic typing; the ability to move the cursor to the highlighted keys on a computer monitor, without using a keyboard. This is one of the functions that inspired Neuralink’s medical applications. The neural implant is designed to get better over time, as well. Similar to a cell phone, the implanted device can also be upgraded. Musk makes a comparison to the iPhone. “I’m sure you wouldn’t want an iPhone 1 stuck in your head, when the iPhone 14 is available,” states Musk as he addresses the crowd at his Neuralink Show and Tell in November.

Human Applications And Possible Implications

The first two applications for humans will be to give original sight to those that were born blind (or restore the sight of those who were blinded), and to enable those who have no ability to operate their muscles to make neural connections in the motor cortex. These are lofty and noble goals that would no doubt create a quality of life that some who are affected have never experienced, but what about what could go wrong? Aren’t the stakes too high to make even the simplest of mistakes anywhere in the process? Does the prospect of scientific discovery make the risks worth it? What about privacy? In regard to transmitting digital signals directly from my brain, can it be hacked? These are interesting questions, but we are assured that the Neuralink neural device is no less safe than an artificial heart. It can’t be hacked, because it only sends signals, not receives them. It is aesthetically undetectable. No one would ever know you had an implant unless you told them.

The more interesting question is what do we do with A.I.? What are we doing in the way of mitigating the risk of having digital superintelligence? Can devices stop taking orders from us and become cognitive of themselves? Is that even possible? With self-driving automobiles, and self navigating flight systems, it would seem like the answer is obvious. Smart homes getting smarter, smart T.V.s with predictive programming, and The Internet of Things as we know it pales in comparison to what is on the horizon. Whatever happens, I’m excited to see what’s next for Neuralink.