Musk is testing brain chips on humans

Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct its first in-human clinical study.

“We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study! This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people,” the company said on Twitter.

So far, the company is in no hurry to announce the details of the selection process for those wishing to participate in the experiment. However, it promises to inform those interested later.

Neuralink, headed by Elon Musk, plans to use the implants to restore vision and movement in humans who had lost such abilities. At the same time, the developers envision that the brain implant will allow its owner to browse the web and even enable telepathy.

This is not the first time Musk has announced testing of brain chips in humans. Neuralink's intentions to start such research have been published at least four times. For the first time, it was expected that the Company would start trials in 2020. However, the relevant approvals were not obtained.

In December 2022, the company was investigated for potential animal-welfare violations. At the time, Neuralink employees complained about pressure from the supervisory board and demands to speed up the testing, which led to greater suffering and even death of several test animals.

Despite the investigation, Neuralink is now finally able to start testing its brain-computer interface on humans.

Founded in 2016, the company aims to use the chips in a wide range of medical and therapeutic services, from rehabilitation after strokes and spinal cord injuries to controlling neural prostheses and the ability to "rewind memories or download them into a robot body," Neuralink CEO Elon Musk said in 2020.

The statement on clearance to conduct human trials followed the recent success of Swiss scientists. The researchers reported that a paralyzed man was able to get up and walk again using the "power of thought". This was made possible by a system of implants that wirelessly transmitted an impulse from the brain to the legs.