In 2024, Neuralink achieved a major milestone by successfully implanting its first medical chips in patients. The mastermind behind this innovation, tech mogul Elon Musk, boldly predicted that within the next two decades, ‘hundreds of millions’ of individuals would have these brain chips.
“If everything goes to plan, we’ll see hundreds equipped with Neuralinks in just a few years, moving to tens of thousands within five years and millions within a decade,” Musk shared on the social platform X.
Reflecting on the Prediction a Year Later
Elon Musk’s vision for chip implants is driven by the rapid advancements in AI, prompting humans to keep pace with technology.
In January 2024, a team of neurosurgeons implanted a Neuralink chip into different parts of the brain of a patient named Noland Arbaugh. Noland, paralyzed below the shoulders following a car accident, was the recipient of this pioneering technology.
About the size of a coin, the chip is equipped with 64 ultra-thin flexible threads — each one more slender than a human hair.
During a live-stream event, Arbaugh was able to play chess and engage in various online games without any physical movement. He likened the experience to “Force powers” from the iconic Star Wars series.
A month later, Noland experienced reduced performance, but following some tweaks to Neuralink’s algorithms, his capabilities were fully restored.
Neuralink shared in a blog post that their second patient, referred to as “Alex,” is now proficiently using computer-aided design (CAD) tools and playing video games with the aid of their implant.
In our latest attempts to minimize thread retraction in our second participant, we implemented several measures: reducing brain movement during surgery and narrowing the gap between the implant and brain surface,” the blog noted.
“This development signifies a critical leap towards providing a high-performance interface that will improve digital device control for quadriplegics, aiming to restore some degree of autonomy.
“We aspire for the Link to assist many in creating within their areas of expertise, and we’re thrilled to collaborate with more individuals to rejuvenate their passions,” the company announced.
Chips to Enhance Mental Capacities and Gaming Skills
Elon Musk predicts that those with Neuralink chips will outperform top-tier gamers in just two years and will enhance the efficiency of human brains significantly.
“Our slow output rate poses as a hurdle between humans and computers,” Musk observed, comparing it humorously to plants. “Imagine seeing a plant and wanting its happiness, yet it communicates very little,” Musk elaborated.
Musk’s immediate goals involve fine-tuning how rapidly brain data is transferred. “The innate low data rate of human beings, particularly our sluggish output, hampers the synergy between us and computers,” Musk expressed, aspiring to boost brain signal transmission speeds “by threefold, sixfold, or even more.”
