Neuralink created a brain-embedding device known as ” The Link”
What is “The Link”
Contents
The whole theory is that when the brain sends the signal through the neuron to the muscle, that muscle fletches and moves. This movement of the muscle translates into action so this whole discovery of Neuralink will actually be a boon to the patients of paralysis and other brain diseases.
The claims are made that these clinical trials can help patients with Parkinson’s, dementia, Alzheimer’s epilepsy, paralysis and stroke. Also, not only brain diseases but psychiatric diseases can be handled with these kinds of devices.
Neuralink – The Company
The company Neuralink was founded in 2016. Much before starting the trials, a lot of research was already done by academicians and researchers. Elon Musk announced the starting of trials in 2016.
In 2017, the trials were done on monkeys. In 2020, with a lot of fanfare, Elon Musk gave a demonstration on Neuralink embedded in pigs. During the trials on monkeys and pigs, only 200 to 300 electrodes were tried.
It took a lot of time to get different permissions. In September 2023 finally US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permitted human trials. A whole lot of 1000 people lined up for the trial. Finally, on January 29, 2024 the human trial was reported to be successful and the human under trial were reported to be recovering. This time, when the trial was made on a human in January 2024, it had 1024 neurons which means (two to the power of 10 neurons). Mind you, there are 9300 crore neurons in the human brain. So this effort is much behind the human action and processing and ability, but at the same time very important milestone for the human race.
So what is Neuralink’s “The Link”?
Take a one rupee coin and put five coins, one on each other, that’s the size of Neuralink that is embedded in the brain. The surgery is so complicated that it cuts the skin, it cuts the skull, it cuts the Dura, in which the brain lies, and there it is fitted and the wires or the electrodes are scattered inside the brain. These wires or electrodes are so thin that 20 electrodes will form a human hair.
Neuralink’s Planting robot.
The robot that can insert this device in the brain is considered to be so precise that Elon Musk says that this procedure is going to be as simple as LASIK surgery for the eyes.
Behind such creative and captivating stories of Elon Musk, lies the toil and hard work of thousands of researchers. We are going with baby steps toward the dream of the coexistence of human and Artificial Intelligence together.
Where do we stand? Stages of AI
I would like to tell you that there are three stages of AI:
The first is artificial, narrow intelligence, or weak AI. Examples of that are Siri (the assistant), Sophia(the robot) and self-driving cars.
The second is artificial general intelligence or strong AI, which can think and decide. No existing example is there for strong AI. However, self-driving cars have very little memory. With this memory, they can remember that the pedestrians were there and estimate that there may be many more of them.
The third is Artificial Intelligence which is in science and fiction and Elon Musk the great storyteller advocates for it. Nonetheless, unless there is a dream, there cannot be a decision there cannot be an effort. The effort can be minuscule. The dream can be as big as a mountain.
The types of Artificial Intelligence
The first is “Reactive AI”, an example of which is the IBM’s Chess program.
Second is “Limited Memory AI”, example self-driving cars.
Third is the “Theory of Mind AI”. Its example is emotional intelligence towards which the researchers are working. An AI, which has its consciousness, and low and behold, we would never like this to be developed and implemented.
We are all happy that science and technology has reached this level. Patients with paralysis will be able to move the mouse and type on the keyboard with the power of thought. This will be a great game-changer.
