Elon Musk’s First-Ever Neuralink Demo Showcases A Pig With A Chip In Its Brain
Image via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com
Elon Musk kicked off the first demonstration of his latest startup, Neuralink, on Friday via a livestream. The Tesla CEO launched the company in hopes of curing neurological conditions such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and spinal cord injuries, by connecting computers with the human brain.
Though the company applied to launch human trials last year, Musk unveiled the progress of Neuralink using pigs. Gertrude was one of the three pigs with the brain chip shown during the demo.
Gertrude’s neural activity was displayed in a graph that documented wireless signals from the processor in her brain. The action specifically pointed to her snout when she was seeking food.
“It actually fits quite nicely in your skull. It could be under your hair, and you wouldn’t know,” Musk described at one point.
During the event, he also described the technology as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires.”
Neutralink is working towards a device with a tiny probe containing more than 3,000 electrodes tied to flexible threads thinner than a human hair strand. This innovation is expected to be able to monitor the activity of 1,000 brain neurons.
Watch the full demonstration below.
[via BBC, cover image via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com]
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