Elon Musk's Neuralink Progress and Developments in Brain-Computer Interface Technology

TapTechNews July 11th news, an executive of Elon Musk's Neuralink company said on Wednesday that the condition of the tiny wire of the brain-computer interface chip implanted in the first participant's body is now more or less very stable.

In May this year, the company said that a tiny wire implanted in the brain of paralyzed person Noland Arbaugh shifted.

After brain surgery, the tissue needs some time to grow in and secure the wire, and then everything is stable, said Dongjin D.J. Seo, an executive of Neuralink.

Currently, Arbaugh, who lives in Arizona, is the only patient who has received the implant surgery, but Musk said he hopes to have more participants this year, reaching a large single digit number.

TapTechNews noted that executives of Neuralink said in a live stream on the social media platform X that they are taking risk-mitigating measures such as shaping the patient's skull and reducing the carbon dioxide concentration in the blood to normal levels.

In the upcoming implant surgeries, our plan is to deliberately carve the surface of the skull to minimize the gap under the implant... This will bring the implant closer to the brain and eliminate some of the tension on the wire, said Matthew MacDougall, the head of neurosurgery at Neuralink.

Neuralink is testing its implant to enable paralyzed patients to use digital devices just by thinking. The device uses tiny wires thinner than human hair to capture signals from the brain and convert them into operations such as moving the mouse cursor on a computer screen.

Musk said in the live stream that the device will not harm the brain. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had raised safety concerns when it first considered the device several years ago but finally approved the company to start human trials last year.

So far, Neuralink's device has enabled Arbaugh to play video games, browse the internet, and move the cursor on a laptop just by thinking.

Neuralink is also developing a new type of device that they believe only needs to implant half the number of electrodes in the brain, making it more efficient and powerful.