Elon Musk's neurotechnology company Neuralink is almost ready for human trials, it just needs approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As The Verge reports, Neuralink held its third "Show and Tell" event last night, which lasted a little under 3 hours and began with Elon Musk speaking for nearly 40 minutes. During his time on stage, Musk said he expects the first Neuralink brain-computer interface to be implanted in a human in 6 months, so mid-2023.
According to Musk, most of the paperwork required for human clinical trials has already been submitted to the FDA. As Neuralink classifies as a medical device, FDA approval is required before the chip can be installed. Neuralink also has to find someone willing to be the first trial subject, with Musk saying he will get the device installed eventually.
Neuralink holds the promise of drastically improving the ability of people living with severe injuries or disabilities to communicate. As part of the presentation last night, Musk showed a monkey moving a cursor around a keyboard with his mind to type a message. He believes that a human will be able to control a phone with their mind "better than someone who has working hands" using this technology. Hopefully he isn't setting impossibly high expectations with such comments.
Musk admits that the primary purpose of the update last night was "recruiting." Neuralink needs people with expertise in a range of areas including robotics, optics, firmware, software, mixed-signal chip design, micro-fabrication, precision manufacturing, machine learning, electrical engineering, materials, clinical and regulatory disciplines, and of course, animal care. With so much talent still required, whoever signs up for the first human trial will need to be very brave indeed.