Just 5 years ago, the current scenario could only pass for the beginning of a dystopia in the cinema not far from Blade Runner. However, the reality is that NeuralinkElon Musk’s brain-computer interface company, has received FDA approval to launch its first human clinical study.
In other words: if true, it would mean that, according to what Neuralink previously said, humans could receive a company device implanted in their heads. What could go wrong?
Let’s remember that last November, Musk clearly said that Neuralink was about six months away from its first human trial, so everything indicates that the promise is coming true: the essay is going to take place connecting a device (owned by Musk) to a human brain.
In an ideal world it would be hard for someone to take such a test, but in this life, everything has a price, and while Musk has claimed in the past that he will implant the device into his own head at some unspecified time in the future, we don’t think he’s going to be the first test subject.
Let us also remember that, as explained en The Vergewe are talking about the same company that has already been accused of abusing its test subjects (with monkeys)a claim that the company denies, and which is under investigation for allegedly transporting contaminated devices extracted from monkeys.
At the beginning of last year, the FDA had already rejected an application for Neuralink for human trials. At that time, the arguments were that they detected “dozens of problems” that Neuralink had to solve before carrying out its tests. Now, it seems thatin theory, they have been corrected.
By the way, Elon Musk’s company is not the first to implant a brain-computer interface in a human being: Synchron was approved by the FDA to begin testing in the United States in 2021 and announced the first brain-computer implant last July. .
