Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to connect human brains directly to computers, a technology he claims is only a year away. He is tackling the project with his company, Neuralink, adding to his duties with Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.
According to a recent report from NBC News, Elon Musk has plans to develop technology that would connect peoples brains to computers. Musk appears to believe that this technology could become usable as early as next year from his new company, Neuralink.
NBC News reports:
Elon Musk, the futurist billionaire behind SpaceX and Tesla, outlined his plans to connect humans’ brains directly to computers on Tuesday night, describing a campaign to create “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” He said the first prototype could be implanted in a person by the end of next year.
Arriving at that goal “will take a long time,” Musk said in a presentation at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, noting that securing federal approval for implanted neural devices is difficult. But testing on animals is already underway, and “a monkey has been able to control the computer with his brain,” he said.
Musk plans to create a human “symbiosis” with AI, he said during his presentation:
Addressing that, Musk said Tuesday, will require finding a way for the brain to “merge” with AI, most likely through tiny wireless chips implanted in the brain through a 2-millimeter incision to create what he called “some sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence,” with a goal of no less than securing “humanity’s future as a civilization relative to AI.”
The biggest technical hurdle is bandwidth, Musk said, meaning the tools humans use to interface with computers, like current hardware systems and smartphones.
Musk did acknowledge that the 2020 goal for the company is “aspirational” and may take longer than currently planned to successfully implement:
While Neuralink “aspirationally” hopes to implant the first chip in a human patient before the end of 2020, Musk acknowledged that the larger goal will take a long time. Still, the ultimate hope is for “some sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence,” which he said would take root “at the civilizational scale.”
“With a high-bandwidth brain interface, I think we can have the option of merging with AI,” he said.
Asked how Neuralink could make such an advance system affordable and widely available, Musk said the infrastructure would be so simple that it wouldn’t need expensive neuroscientists to implant and maintain.
“I think it’s safe to say you could repay the loan with superhuman intelligence,” he said. “I think it’s a safe bet.”
During Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last month, Musk offered an update on the Advanced Summon feature that Tesla has advertised for some time, which will allow Tesla owners to press a button on their keys and have their vehicle drive directly to them using the company’s advertised self-driving car capabilities.
“We’re making steady improvements to it. It’s close to being amazing. It’s not quite there but it’s close,” Musk said. “There’s a lot of complexity in parking lots.” Musk added: “We don’t want to like, run someone over. The threshold is, is it more convenient to summon your car, or walk your car, and if it’s more convenient to walk, summon is not that useful. So it has to move reasonably fast.”