Musk’s company Neuralink will implant chips in people’s brains. It received the green light from the American FDA – Technologies – Science and technology

The US FDA will allow Elon Musk’s company to start clinical testing of brain implants that are supposed to restore sight and mobility to people.

Photo: Neuralink

A microchip with electrodes is inserted into the brain through a small incision in the skull.

The founder of the Neuralink company, billionaire Elon Musk, already talked a few years ago about his vision of improving people’s abilities or compensating for various disabilities using brain implants. Now the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly approved him to start a clinical trial in which he will implant chips in people’s brains. In the initial phase, Neuralink wants to reach people with disabilities, to whom it wants to use chips to restore sight and mobility of limbs after paralysis.

Information about the approval of the clinical trial has not yet been confirmed. The FDA has refused to comment on the whole matter, so the public has to rely only on the information released by Elon Musk. As reported by Reuters, the FDA has already refused Neuralink permission to start tests due to safety concerns. Chips that were designed to transmit signals from the brain via Bluetooth directly to devices, so the company has so far only tested them on monkeys.

Neuralink said on its Twitter that it will soon make available a form through which the first interested parties will be able to apply for the clinical study. As the company writes on its website, security, availability and reliability are of primary importance to it during testing. However, experts warn that before similar brain implants are made available to the general public, extensive testing will be needed to demonstrate their technical maturity and adherence to ethical standards.

The development of Neuralink brain implants has been full of controversy from the beginning. The company decided to expand experiments on animals due to the effort to quickly obtain permission from the FDA. Its practices also became the subject of a federal investigation to determine whether the company violated the Animal Welfare Act. During microchip testing, she killed 1,500 animals.