Musk’s Neuralink Has an Upcoming Show and Tell Event
Elon Musk took to Twitter on Aug. 21st to announce that Neuralink will have a ‘show and tell’ event on Halloween this year. No further details have been given about the event itself yet.
According to four current and former employees of Neuralink, Musk has been frustrated by delayed and slow progress, and may invest in Neuralink’s biggest competitor, Synchron.
This is a move that shocks the business-minded, but the richest man in the world has taken similar steps in the past with Tesla, making their schematics open to the public to encourage electric vehicle production as a whole.
As mentioned in many interviews, Musk claims that he cares more about the progression of modern society more than he does about making profit.
What is Neuralink?
In 2016 when Elon Musk announced Neuralink, he essentially said the purpose of it was to control machines using your brain. The idea is that users can operate computers without having to use their hands, voice, or any other part of the body.
The most obvious use case for this is in paraplegics, but Musk isn’t limiting their approach to just that. The end product may eventually be people with chips implanted in their brain that provide them with superhuman intellect. Literal cyborgs.
How Does Neuralink Work?
After surgically implanting the 4mm N1 chip onto a patient’s brain, wires that are thinner than human hairs detect signals between neurons. The chip can then respond with its own remote messaging to a receiver connected to the computer the user is trying to operate.
Patients may be able to have up to 10 chips implanted, giving them a wide range of potential functionality. Although, Neuralink has yet to have their first patient user.
Synchron Beat Neuralink in the Race for First US Implantation
Though Synchron was founded in the same year as Neuralink, they are ahead of Neuralink. Firstly, they developed an implant that enters the brain through an artery as opposed to needing to be placed on the brain by cutting through the skull.
They received FDA approval for trials in 2021 and were the first to be used in a live patient in the United States. Before that, they already tested their chip on four Australians, the first ever being in 2019.
Why is Neuralink so Far Behind Synchron?
Of the eight founding members of Neuralink, only two remain, including Musk and Dongjin “DJ” Seo, Neuralink’s implant engineer. Their progress has been slower than expected, and some think its due to management issues. It’s possible that Musk is simply spread too thin to dedicate the amount of time needed to lead yet another huge project.
Between Tesla, SpaceX, and the Boring Company, Elon Musk is one of the busiest and most important men on the planet. He also does frequent interviews, events, and has a steady social media presence.
Another disadvantage for Neuralink has been having to deal with being accused of secretly using live monkeys as test subjects.
Additionally, Synchron seems to have the superior technology. Time will tell whose chip functions better, but in terms of implantation, approval for testing, and confidence in the product, Synchron is quite a ways ahead. So much so that Elon may invest in them in what appears to be a ‘whoever gets there first’ mentality. It seems likely that Musk will buy Synchron out if they continue to lead the way.
In fact, this may not have been the first time Musk entered talks with a competitor. According to unnamed sources, Musk held talks with Paradromics, another company developing brain tech, in 2020.
Conclusion
Neuralink’s Halloween event should be very interesting and exciting. They could announce new functionality, FDA testing approval updates, or even dates for their first patient implants.