Neuralink, Elon Musk’s biotech company aiming to implant chips in people’s brains, has begun seeking patients willing to participate in the company’s first clinical study on humans.
The study is called the PRIME Study, which stands for ‘Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface.’ Neuralink is looking for individuals who have been paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries and those suffering from the nerve disease ALS.
During their experiments, Neuralink plans to test three things: the so-called N1 chip to be implanted in the participants’ brains, the R1 robot used to implant the chip, and the N1 app that translates brain signals into computer instructions. It should be noted that the N1 chip is not the ‘brain computer’ Musk has previously talked about, which, according to Musk, would allow people to access AI functions, stream music directly to the brain, and perhaps even give people telepathic abilities.
The idea behind the N1 chip is to facilitate the daily lives of people with disabilities by giving them greater opportunities to communicate with their surroundings. Similar applications have been tested in previous research studies conducted by others.
