Twelve people have now been implanted with Musk's Neuralink

Elon Musk's company Neuralink has been pretty quiet recently. The manufacturer of brain implants has now announced on X that twelve people are now wearing the implants. All of them together have worn the implants for 2,000 days and used them for more than 15,000 hours. Neuralink has only been allowed to carry out tests on humans in the USA since 2024. The US health authorities had to give their approval.

However, Neuralink is otherwise keeping a very low profile when it comes to the new patients and the test subjects' results. What they have in common is severe paralysis. The Neuralink chip in the brain enables people to control computers and other devices using their thoughts. It is known that operations have now also been carried out in Canada. According to Neuralink, scientific work is being carried out in cooperation with institutions in several countries. On X, Neuralink shows a video of a patient with his daughter. The two are playing rock, scissors, paper—the daughter with her hands, the father using his thoughts to control a virtual hand on the screen.

The first patient recovered quickly after the implantation, it was reported at the time. He was able to move a mouse on the screen just by thinking about it, Musk explained. However, there had been complications. Wires from the chip had come loose in the brain, which had impaired its functionality.

The second patient could already play the first-person shooter Counter-Strike with his chip. He is said to have left the hospital the day after his operation. There are no known complications. Alex, as the patient is called according to Neuralink, had a spinal cord injury and is therefore no longer able to move. There are still videos of him on X.

Neuralink and other brain implants

Neuralink recently raised 650 million US dollars from investors. On the one hand, this was to be used to operate on more patients. The company also wants to expand the chip. Musk had already spoken of a symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence in 2019. So far, the chip has registered the signals in the brain that become active when someone imagines a movement.

Neuralink is the best-known company producing brain implants, not least because of Musk, but it is not the only one. In the USA, for example, the company Precision is also working on flexible chips with similar functions. There are also brain implants that can detect cancer or help with epilepsy and depression.

(emw)