Ready to ‘download memories’? Elon Musk’s Neuralink greenlit for human trials

Elon Musk’s Neuralink received the green light from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to commence its first-ever human trials.

Taking to social media platforms on Thursday, Neuralink said it was excited since FDA approval is the “first step that will one day allow our technology to help many people”.

Neuralink: A closer look

The company said is not yet ready to start recruiting participants for the trial: “Recruitment is not yet open for our clinical trial. We’ll announce more information on this soon!”

Established in 2016, Neuralink’s grand vision extends beyond just medical and therapeutic applications.

We are excited to share that we have received the FDA’s approval to launch our first-in-human clinical study!

This is the result of incredible work by the Neuralink team in close collaboration with the FDA and represents an important first step that will one day allow our…

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The sky is blue for me, Elon

— Neuralink (@neuralink) May 25, 2023

They aim to commercialise Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs), nifty little gadgets to convert brain activity into digital signals which computers can understand.

The company’s ambitious plans include the use of BCIs for stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation, and neural prosthetic controls.

Back in 2021, Neuralink presented a monkey named Pager playing a video game, Pong – with its mind.

To control the paddles in the game, Pager simply had to think about moving his hand up or down.

WATCH: Neuralink in action

^{Pager the monkey demonstrating how Neuralink works.}

Musk also controversially stated in 2020 the device could be used to “rewind memories or download them into robots”.

Apart from its erratic founder, Neuralink has faced its fair share of hurdles over the years.

READ: Elon Musk willing to implant Neuralink in his children

Brain implantation concerns

The delay in FDA approval stemmed from the fact that BCIs – which is roughly the size of a coin – will be surgically implanted into a patient’s brain.

At a previous presentation, Musk said: “It actually fits quite nicely in your skull. It could be under your hair and you wouldn’t know.”

Concerns were raised over the device’s lithium battery, containing miniscule wires which could migrate to others parts of the brain.

The question also arose of how to remove the devices without damaging the brain tissue around it.

Animal abuse allegations

Back in March, the company’s application for human trials was initially rejected by the FDA.

This was partly due to concerns over the high number of test animals that had died following the implantation of the prototype BCI.

Reports indicate that more than 1 500 animals have died during the developent of BCI devices, since 2018.

This prompted the Agriculture’s Inspector General in the United States to launch a separate investigation into the allegations.