What Is Neuralink?

Neuralink was co-founded by Elon Musk and a team of engineers in 2016 in San Francisco. The company is creating a microchip that is meant to be embedded in a person’s brain by a surgical robot. The device’s sensors will pick up brain activity and potentially stimulate certain brain areas. Neuralink believes it will be able to solve a number of neurological disorders, restore motor function and treat paralysis.

Such technology has many applications in medicine, science, and even entertainment. Limb amputees will be able to control robotic prosthetics. It would be possible to send signals with mind to a smartphone or other smart device, while video game characters won’t require a joystick to control them.

The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is a crucial component of Neuralink technology. It is a system that allows for real-time communication between the human brain and the computer. The BCI is made up of electrodes that are implanted into the brain, and a computer that processes the information received from these electrodes.

Neuralink’s BCI is incredibly advanced, with the ability to read and interpret the complex signals that are generated by the human brain. This allows for a more natural and intuitive interaction between the user and the computer.

Elon Musk envisions the potential of brain implants to alleviate conditions like obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia, while also enabling activities such as web browsing and even telepathy. One day this would help humans compete with artificial intelligence.

A sealed chip the size of a quarter dollar is implanted directly into the patient’s brain. The N1 chip contains 1,024 thin electrodes capable of recording and stimulating neural activity. It hides seamlessly under the skin and can be wirelessly charged. Due to the fragile and flexible nature of the electrodes, manual insertion is not possible.

To overcome this problem, Neuralink has developed a neurosurgical robot specifically designed for fully automated implantation, providing precise and safe chip placement. The R1 surgical robot provides reliable and precise insertion of the implant into the brain, with the procedure taking just 15 minutes.

Opportunities

Our reliance on smartphones as extensions of ourselves highlights our current cyborg-like nature. However, the rate at which we send and receive information is limited. Neuralink aims to address this limitation.

Imagine being able to move a cursor, send a text message, or type in a word processor with just a thought. While the initial focus is on medical use cases Musk has aspired to take Neuralink’s chips mainstream – to, as he’s said, put a “Fitbit in your skull.”

The company’s advancements spark a crucial debate on the synergy between humans and artificial intelligence, ethics, privacy, and the responsible implementation of such groundbreaking technology.

Neuralink holds vast possibilities, including:

• helping paraplegics regain mobility with robotic prostheses controlled by electrical signals sent by their brains;
• restoring vision for those who have never had it, restoring hearing;
• preventing memory loss with age – the ability to upload memories to an artificial intelligence system stored on a cloud server;
• improved ability to learn and remember new information;
• typing, messaging, and searching the web just by imagining relevant movements;
• playing video games, manipulating virtual reality, or even receiving data inputs like text messages or videos directly, bypassing the need for a monitor;
• communicating telepathically over long distances without the use of any devices such as cell phones or computers.

Financials

Neuralink has raised a total of $368M from a variety of investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Google Ventures, Sam Altman, Craft Ventures and others.

Neuralink has recently increased its valuation from $2.15B to about $5B. The surge was driven by purchases from investors, particularly after it was announced May 25 that U.S. regulators approved human trials of Neuralink’s brain chip.