Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to do human testing

Neuralink plans to begin clinical trials of its brain chip on humans in as little as six months. However, there is still no approval from the responsible US authority for this.

Elon Musk currently has some major construction sites to look after. Above all with his newly acquired company Twitter. But another major construction site for the multi-billionaire is the brain chip company Neuralink.

At the company’s launch event in July 2019, Musk announced that he wanted to test the brain chip on humans. These tests were supposed to take place in 2020, but have been postponed repeatedly so far.

Now Musk has one Presentation at Neuralink HQ re-announced plans to test its technology on humans. The tests are scheduled to start in six months.

What is Elon Musk planning to do with Neuralink?

On Wednesday, the Tesla boss announced that he wanted to test Neuralink on humans in six months. Because then the first clinical trials on humans should start.

“We want to be extremely careful and sure that it works well before we put a device in a human,” Musk said at his presentation.

Earlier this year it was assumed that Musk wanted to insert the Neuralink chip into a human brain. Because at that time, a job advertisement from the medical start-up Neuralink appeared, in which a leader for the clinical studies was wanted. The advertisement also stated that the applicant(s) should have experience with implantable medical devices.

However, permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet been granted for the test on humans. However, the company has repeatedly missed internal deadlines for this approval, quoted Reuters current and former employees.

Neuralink has already conducted animal testing

In recent years, the company has already carried out animal experiments. But these tests have not only brought in good publicity for the company.

For example, the animal rights group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed a complaint with the US Department of Agriculture in February alleging animal cruelty.

The complaint said that Neuralink conducted invasive and lethal experiments on 23 macaque monkeys. Of these, only seven are said to have survived the experiments.

What are the goals of the medical company?

Neuralink has ambitious goals with its brain chip. Because this should one day enable blind people to see again, for example. The Neuralink chip should also make it possible for people with paralysis to move their muscles again.

We believe we can restore sight even if someone has never seen, e.g. B. because he was born blind.

“Progress may seem excruciatingly slow at first, especially when it comes to humans, but we’re doing everything we can to develop the device in parallel,” Musk said on Wednesday. “So in theory, progress should be exponential.”

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