The field of brain-machine or brain-computer interface research has been making tremendous progress with the possibility of installing brain implants in humans.
Tech tycoon Elon Musk's Neuralink startup became the latest company to try its implant called ‘Link’ on its first human patient.
Link is a device about the size of five stacked coins, containing a chip and electrode arrays of over 1,000 ultra-thin, flexible conductors that is placed inside the human brain through robotic surgery.
Musk announced that the patient was recovering well and initial results were showing "promising neuron spike detection." Neurons are nerve centers in the brain that act as both a computing and memory center.
Neuralink hopes to build direct communication channels between the brain and computers in a bid to supercharge human capabilities, treat neurological disorders like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)— fatal motor neuron disease or Parkinson's disease— and even reach a symbiotic relationship between humans and artificial intelligence in the future.
Musk's neurotechnology company is not the only one experimenting in the field of brain-computer interface. A niche group of companies such as Australia-based Synchron and California-based Blackrock Neurotech have previously tested brain implants on their human patients.
The evangelists of the technology believe that it will help paralyzed patients to move and the blind to see and even enable computer control just by thinking. Only time will tell if the plans come to fruition.
