Neuralink: Elon Musk creates first neural implant with computer chip - but is it safe?

Elon Musk has said his start-up firm Neuralink has successfully implanted a computer chip into a human’s brain for the first time.

The entrepreneur said the patient is “recovering well”. Neuralink aims to give those with paralysis the ability to control their devices, including their smartphone, using just their thoughts, and is currently being trialled to test the functionality of its interface and the surgical robot used to implant the chips.

Neuralink says the threads of its implant are so fine that they cannot be inserted by the human hand, so a specially designed and built Neuralink surgical robot carries out the procedure.

Musk hinted at a positive start to the trial, posting to X, the social media platform he owns, that "initial test results show promising neuron spike detection" – in reference to the cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send information around the brain and to the rest of the body. The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX boss said the brain chip company’s first product was called "Telepathy".

"Enables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking," he wrote on X. "Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs.

"Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal."

Professor Tara Spires-Jones, president of the British Neuroscience Association, said: "The idea of brain-nervous system interfaces has great potential to help people with neurological disorders in future and is an excellent example of how fundamental neuroscience research is being harnessed for medical advances.

"In recent research trials (not related to Neuralink), scientists have been able to implant brain-spine interfaces which help people with paralysis to walk and other work shows promising results in computers interpreting brain waves and brain scans to allow people who can’t speak to communicate.

"However, most of these interfaces require invasive neurosurgery and are still in experimental stages thus it will likely be many years before they are commonly available."

Professor Anne Vanhoestenberghe, professor of active implantable medical devices at King’s College London, added that there was "insufficient information" to say whether or not the Telepathy implant was safe. She added that "true success in my mind should be evaluated in the long-term, by how stable the interface is over time, and how much it benefits the participant".

There are some concerns about the use of neural implants in humans, with particular worries about what could happen if the technology developed too far. For decades, this has been documented and explored within pop culture.

Leigh Whannell's 2018 movie Upgrade saw disabled main character Grey Trace given a second chance at life through an AI implant. In the 2021 movie Implanted, the main character is implanted with an experimental AI chip, which then takes control of her body and dictates a series of heinous crimes.

And adding to the show's streak of predicting the future, in season 23 of The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson plugged herself into the "ultranet" - a virtual reality world with video streaming and offshore gambling facilities, which has often been compared to Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse.