this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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Company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device after getting green light from independent review board

Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup, Neuralink, said it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting patients for its first human trial. The company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device in a six-year study.

Neuralink is one of several companies developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) that can collect and analyze brain signals. But its billionaire executive’s bombastic promotion of the company, including promises to develop an all-encompassing brain computer to help humans keep up with artificial intelligence, has attracted skepticism and raised ethical concerns among neuroscientists and other experts.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration denied the company’s request to fast-track human trials, but in May approved Neuralink for an investigational device exemption (IDE) that allows a device to be used for clinical studies. The agency has not disclosed how its initial concerns were resolved.

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[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 92 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Personally, I think I'll be avoiding anything that starts with "Elon Musk's..."

[–] cassetti@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, I certainly won't use any product associated with that muskrat.

[–] cmbabul@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Things would have to seismically change in the tech/business world for me to trust any company enough to put something in my brain. That said, if I was forced to buy one the last two I would consider letting near my brain are Musk and Zuck

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[–] moipe@lemmy.world 80 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is the one he cooked all those monkey brains for? Pass.

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

1,500 animals died, including 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys. Sounds really reliable.

[–] reddithalation@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

i mean its likely not reliable but i bet some animal deaths are inevitable when developing a new implant. 1500 sounds way too high though.

[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He ignored his employees saying that the device wasn't ready and forced them to try it on the animals

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[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 68 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Come on fans. This is your moment to shine and show us just how much you believe in his bullshit.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't you want to live like it's Cyberpunk 2077? Now's your chance!

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Perhaps like one of the vegetables from 2077?

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

That fuck will sell ad space on the fucking thing and all you’ll get is Kanyes voice in your head chanting: “Elon macht frei” 24/7.

[–] paddirn@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can totally trust the guy who ran the biggest social media company into the ground within less than a year to surgically implant you with a device that has a 21% fatality rate.

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[–] leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Musk: "Scumbags of the world are welcome on my platforms!"

Also Musk: "Let me put this device in your brain."

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It'll never get into testing...

Everyone that would volunteer, doesn't have a place for the implant to go

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[–] medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org 37 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Where's this independent review board so we can strip them of all authority? The crimes and abuses this project has committed against animal subjects should have gotten it shut down a long time ago and the PI brought up on animal cruelty charges. I do not envy the neurosurgeons and trauma surgeons who are going to have to try to save any of the human participants.

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[–] Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder if he’ll later say he only implanted people who were already dying with the devices.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As opposed to the rest of us who are not dying.

[–] staticblanket@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had forgotten about this until you mentioned it..

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just found it stupid that he said only those who were dying were tested on... Everyone's dying, that's a shit excuse.

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[–] akai@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How long before Musk decides to charge per thought?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

For $8, you get to be able to have basic motor function. For $10 a month, you get the rudiments of speech. For $15 a month, otherwise known as Neuralink Blue, you get free speech (free speech limited to what Elon approves of you saying).

[–] watson387@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

He’s hoping to make your life pay to win.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

It's already pay to win. They're trying to make it pay to live.

[–] JoMomma@lemm.ee 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And Elon is going first right... right?

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[–] Hexagon@feddit.it 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I can't wait to have ads in my dreams /s

[–] ares35@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago

nightmare mode is free. upgrade to sweet dreams only $49.99 per night.

[–] mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Lightspeed Briefs™

[–] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

If you put any shit from this man in your head, you deserve what happens to you.

[–] Zellith@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On the bright side, there will be a few less musk fans around after they are lobotomised.

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[–] reverendsteveii@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did they run out of monkeys?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

No, anyone who signs up for this is one.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Elon Musk’s Neuralink approved to recruit ~~fools~~ humans for brain-implant trial

[–] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Interfacing with the brain is easy, we've been doing it for decades. Let me know when we can leave an implant in for a decade without it turning into a scar tissue tumor.

Although hopefully I'll have died of old age before that happens. Being able to plug in people is the basis of more dystopian nightmares than I can count, and I have zero confidence in our species ability to prevent those horrors from being reality.

[–] muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

If it works then it will be the ultimate advance in human capability since the invention of the internet. But i don't trust Elon to respect anyone's privacy rights.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What?

We've had implants that can control a mouse and even type on a keyboard for decades now...

Neurolink is just a less obvious interface, the gains are nowhere near worth the setbacks.

Regular science gets thing working then shrinks it down. Musk jumped straight to shrinking it down, and he just fucking can't get it to work.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

We've had implants that can control a mouse and even type on a keyboard for decades now...

I don't really know if we've had other companies that are crazy enough to pierce the blood brain barrier, just for a brain interface machine.

There have been plenty of brain interface machines, but most are just pieces of headgear that you wear. And they're just as useful as Musk's interface..... not very.

When you utilize a traditional mouse you are relying on both visual and proprioceptive data, which is interpreted in conjunction in real time by your brain. Without the proprioceptive sensation, your brain loses track of where the mouse is in the operational space. Meaning it takes a large amount of concentration to operate anything with just the aid of visualization.

The biggest problem is that they've essentially designed a meningitis machine. For my job we occasionally have to set skull pins for halo devices, basically a cervical immobilizing brace. These pins pierce the skin and are set into the bone of the skull, though we don't pierce through the skull or damage the blood brain barrier.

These pins are extremely susceptible to infection depending on the level of patient compliance. Because the scalp is not firmly attached to the skull it's is free to move against the pins and create a lot of skin irritation, which can lead to infections if not properly cleaned on a regular basis.

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[–] Solumbran@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It cannot "work". Even if it succeeded technically speaking, you cannot expect such a device to be secure (as no device is, and certainly not one made by Musk).

Now computerised cars are already an increasing risk in giving new ways to commit murder without being caught, but if you directly put a security risk in your brain, I am pretty sure that many people will jump on the occasion.

[–] ech@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Even if it were secure, what happens to all the gen 1 implantees when gen 2 comes out? or when Musk decides to no longer support certain models? Imagine having a 2007 iphone stuck inside your brain, forever. Or I guess people could get brain surgery every few years. That seems reasonable.

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[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

We can worry about privacy after he stops melting brains.

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[–] Tigbitties@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We can't even get VR and AR right ans we don't even really know what to do with it. What are we going to use neuralink for? Turning off our TV with our minds?

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[–] Tammo-Korsai@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

I'm sure Musk will weep for anyone who dies in these experimentations. He's totally not a sociopath, you know?

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What could possibly go wrong?

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[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Ok, that's neat. I wanna see him use it first.

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