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Elon Musk’s Neuralink reports trouble with first human brain chip (arstechnica.com)

submitted 6 months ago by Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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The first invasive brain chip that Neuralink embedded into a human brain has malfunctioned, with neuron-surveilling threads appearing to have become dislodged from the participant's brain, the company revealed in a blog post Wednesday.

It's unclear what caused the threads to become "retracted" from the brain, how many have retracted, or if the displaced threads pose a safety risk. Neuralink, the brain-computer interface startup run by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Ars. The company said in its blog post that the problem began in late February, but it has since been able to compensate for the lost data to some extent by modifying its algorithm.

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[–] over_clox@lemmy.world -2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I thought the goal was to reconnect the brain to the spinal cord though.

But dude is still stuck in a wheelchair, and so far it's basically been just a fancy experimental mouse cursor? Installed in his brain? And already failing?.....

[–] VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Watching his videos he's a clever snd self aware guy more than capable of thinking for himself. Hate Elon but you don't need to shit on the disabled by acting like being in a wheelchair means you can't think for yourself

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You totally missed my point. I wasn't shitting on the disabled fella at all. I was 100% shitting on the Neuralink chip, which is supposedly being developed and promoted as a way of fixing paralysis.

The fact that the man is still in a wheelchair means that Neuralink has achieved 0% of it's ultimate intended goal. It's just a fancy mouse cursor (and probably keyboard) so far.

[–] VirtualOdour@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

Science isn't magic, nothing gets invented in a single iteration. Don't let your hate for a single person blind you to reality, allowing someone who can't control a mouse to do so is breathtaking. it's not the first time it's happened but it's a big step forward and once testing and improvement stages have been completed we'll hopefully see more fluid links to other movement tools and technologies such as llms which will allow people totally dependent on help to live their own lives.

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I don't really keep up with Elon moon shits, but I think the idea is to substitute the brains neurological commands. Research is still on the "read" stage, like knowing what information the brain is requesting. Eventually neurolink will also need to discover how to relay those signals back to the nervous system in a way it understands, engaging muscles and such, effectively rebuilding the bridge that was damaged. Or robot legs or whatever, but the key is first getting the information into a format they can act on. But I'm not smart, this is just how I understood it.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

And they already killed how many monkeys testing this stuff? Last I heard was that they tested 15 monkeys or so, and 13 of them ended up dying or having to be euthanized after only a few months.

They already admitted they had problems with their brain electrodes corroding after a few months or so...

I like to keep my noodle intact thank you very much. Even if I was a vegetable, I wouldn't want a chip in my head that's known to have corroding wires.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 13 points 6 months ago (3 children)

See the corroding part scares me. Actual electrodes planted in the brain should never corrode. The company I work for actually makes brain implants(no, not nueralink) so I know it's possible.

That stuff is EXPENSIVE though ... So he must of cheaped out with a cheaper metal and that's why it corroded.

[–] over_clox@lemmy.world 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Indeed. Hell, I'm no expert in the field, but haven't they had reliable Parkinson's brain implant devices for decades?

[–] vrek@programming.dev 14 points 6 months ago

Yes, and those are the ones I make.

[–] philycheeze@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

Well that’s the main issue isn’t it? It’s not that the idea is bad, it’s all the cut corners on safety and quality. Same reason I won’t be getting into one of Elons cars or rockets.

[–] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I hope he chose to cheap on monkeys because they’re viewed as expendable in the eyes of many, and hope he actually used the good stuff on people.

He’s the type of psycho to say no to expensive implants on the monkeys because they’re “just monkeys”