Neuralink to be limited for 'medical use' and tightly regulated, predicts expert

"It's not unsafe" but it's invasive and will remain tightly regulated. That's the verdict of a UK-based tech expert on Elon Musk's brain-chip implant Neuralink, which  was fitted to its first ever human test subject on Sunday. 

"Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," tech entrepreneur and billionaire Musk said on Monday in a promotional post on his social media platform X.  The patient is said to be recovering from the operation.

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The newest member of the cybernetic brain chip playing field, Musk has offered large promises by Neuralink, such as the ability to control your electronics through just internal thought. However, experts state that, though new to the market, Musk is entering a field dating back decades.

"It's not the first time this has happened," Anil Seth, Professor of Cognitive & Computational Neuroscience at University of Sussex, told CGTN. "Brain implant technology has been really developed since the mid 20th century. And certainly in the last 30 years there's been quite a track record."

Seth declared: "It's not unsafe, it is invasive, which is to say it does involve sticking something into the brain. So that's always going to carry some risk.”

Last September, Neuralink said it received approval for recruitment for the human trial. However, experts say the technology must be solely for medical treatment purposes and will require more regulation.

According to Seth: "That really is what we call a dual-use technology. There are many potential benefits from doing that, but there are also many potential worries. I don't think we'll see it catching on too widely, mainly because implanting things in the living brain is something that I expect will remain very tightly regulated and for good reason." 

The study uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink said previously, adding that its initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone.

The implants' "ultra-fine" threads help transmit signals in participants' brains, Neuralink has said.

The first product from Neuralink would be called Telepathy, Musk said in a separate post on X.

The company was valued at about $5 billion last June, but four lawmakers in late November asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Musk had misled investors about the safety of its technology after veterinary records showed problems with the implants on monkeys included paralysis, seizures and brain swelling.

Musk wrote in a social media post on September 10 that "no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant." He added that the company chose "terminal" monkeys to minimize risk to healthy ones.

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