Musk gives live demo of Neuralink's upgraded brain-computer implant

Last year, Musk demonstrated a sewing machine-like surgical robot to implant thin and flexible electrode-covered wires into the head of a person and a receiver module on the skull's surface, near the ear.

This receiver picked up signals from the electrodes and subsequently transmitted them to a computer; it was smaller than other BCIs in the market but still big enough to be seen.

In today's event, the Tesla boss showcased a V2 prototype of the automated surgical system which can insert the implant in under an hour without general anesthesia.

More importantly, the implant itself has gotten smaller in favor of an all-in-one design, where the wire electrodes are 5 micron-wide while the receiver they connect to is coin-shaped, meant to sit flush with the skull.

At the event, Musk gave a demo of the tech with three pigs - one that never had an implant, second that had it, and the third that had it only for some time.

Through the first and the third case, Musk emphasized that both pigs behaved as usual, which shows that the implant could be removed for potential hardware upgrades, without any issues.

The second pig in the demo, Gertrude, had the Link recording signals from an area of the brain that was linked to its snout.

This way, as Gertrude touched and smelled, the neural interface it had in place for two months picked up signals of neurons firing.

The signals were displayed through a series of dots and noises on a display.

In its current form, Neuralink's brain-computer interface only records and transmits signals from the brain's cortical surface - the region responsible for important functions like movement, vision, and hearing.

However, eventually, the company plans to insert them deeper into the grey matter to monitor deeper brain activity. There are not many details around this yet.

Neuralink hopes that the system will allow them to implant thin, flexible wires covered in 1,024 electrodes to pick up brain activity and transmit that data through Link at megabit speeds.

Musk says that they have managed to implant 1,500 electrodes in mice, although human trials are yet to begin. Previously, he had suggested that the device would go into a human in 2020.

With Neuralink's BCI to monitor and stimulate brain activity, people should be able to get early warnings of imminent strokes and heart attacks.

Plus, the device might be able to solve several neurological problems, including memory loss and strokes, and also help patients regain their lost senses of sight or hearing.

The first trials will see patients with spinal cord injuries have the implant.

The developments with this technology will ultimately build towards a system that will help Neuralink "achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence".

This would help humans keep up with the advancement of AI and ensure the "democratization of intelligence" by keeping it from staying in a purely digital form.

Musk says this particular symbiosis could be a reality in the order of a decade.