Tesla founder Elon Musk has launched tech startup Neuralink to build implants that connect human brains with computer interfaces via artificial intelligence.
The approaching technology would see groups of minuscule, flexible electrode "threads" implanted into the human brain by a neurosurgical robot.
These threads detect and record the electrical signals in the brain, and transmit this information outside the body.
This has the potential to create a scalable high-bandwidth brain-machine interface (BMI) system, meaning that it connects the brain to an external device to form a brain-machine interface.
First tests on humans by end of 2020
The goal is to use Neuralink to understand and treat different forms of brain or spine-related disorders. For instance, paralysed humans could use the implanted device to control phones or computers. However Musk also envisions the implant as a means of enhancing your own brain, giving humans the option to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence (AI).
This could eventually lead to a future of "superhuman intelligence", according to Musk.
Neuralink is working on an implant to connect the human brain to external devices
As Musk explained at the Neuralink Launch Event in San Francisco on 16 July, the idea is to create a "well-aligned future" that mitigates the supposed existential threat of AI.
He and his team hope to test the system on a human patient before the end of 2020.
Each group of threads could co...