ReutersApr 10, 2021 02:15:29 AM
(Reuters) – Billionaire company Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup released footage Friday showing a monkey playing a simple video game after receiving implants of the new technology.
The 3-minute video from Neuralink https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsCul1sp4hQ shows Pager, a male macaque with chips embedded on each side of his brain, playing “Mind Pong”. Although it was trained to move a joystick, it is now unplugged. He controls the paddle simply by remembering to move his hand up or down.
“With the first @ Neuralink product, someone with paralysis can use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone with a thumb,” tweeted Musk https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1380315654524301315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed % 7Ctwterm% 5E1380315654524301315% 7Ctwgr% 5E% 7Ctwcon% 5Es1_ & ref_url = https% 3A% 2F% 2Fwww.theverge.com% 2F2021% 2F4% 2F8% 2F22374749%
“Later versions can relay signals from neural links in the brain to neural links in motor / sensory neuron clusters in the body so that paraplegics, for example, can walk again. The device is wirelessly implanted flush with the skull and charges so you look and feel normal.”
Neuralink records electrical signals from the brain and decodes them using more than 2,000 electrodes implanted in regions of the monkey’s motor cortex that coordinate hand and arm movements.
“With this data, we calibrate the decoder by mathematically modeling the relationship between patterns of neural activity and the various joystick movements that generate them.”
San Francisco-based Neuralink was co-founded by Musk in 2016 and aims to implant wireless brain computer chips to cure neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and spinal cord injuries, and to merge humanity with artificial intelligence.
In August 2020, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink chip implant and described it as a “Fitbit in your skull”.
Musk has brought together various experts in the past to develop technology previously only offered by academic laboratories, including rockets and electric vehicles, through companies like Tesla Inc and SpaceX.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; writing by Richard Chang, editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
This story was not edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by automatic feed.
