It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that a scientific advance raises ethical doubts.
This case is no stranger to this dilemma. Elon Musk announced on Monday night that the first human had received a brain implant thanks to his company Neuralink. The breakthrough is seen as a potential milestone in the development of brain-computer interface technology that will one day supposedly help those suffering from illnesses such as paralysis to interact with their environment.
This was communicated by the businessman in messages to his X network, in which, without further specification, he assured that the patient had received the implant on Sunday and that he was recovering well from the surgical intervention.
In this way, he indicated that the operation had been carried out successfully, without any relevant technical problems being recorded. But he did not release personal details about the patient, or where he was.
Neuralink announced in September that it was opening a period to recruit patients to participate in its trials. In his communication, he noted that they were looking for people who suffered from quadriplegia due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or spinal cord injury, according to the company’s recruitment ads.
In messages on his proprietary network, Musk added that initial results showed promising detections of neural spikes. This would mean that the device was detecting signals from individual neurons within the brain.
This circumstance could allow brain signals of higher quality to be decoded, the specialists emphasized. But Musk did not specify the number of neurons the device detected, nor did the company provide any specifics on the safety and efficacy data needed to gauge the implant’s success, experts responded.
Neuralink’s implant includes a chip the size of a coin that is placed in the skull. Attached to the chip are dozens of tiny, thread-like electrodes that are implanted in the brain itself and that transmit electrical signals from the neuron.
How an implanted brain will respond to the inserted wires over time remains to be resolved. Tissues can grow around it, the researchers explain, and degrade the electrical signals it captures.
Neuralink competes with a handful of other companies that are involved in brain-computer interface development. Other firms have tested possible implants. None, however, have come as far as the company Musk founded in 2016.
Clearly, Neuralink is hitting the accelerator. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year gave the company the go-ahead to conduct its first trials of implanting a chip in the human brain, a success and promise with a view to helping patients overcome paralysis and neurological problems. And in September it received permission to recruit patients to begin developing these tests in humans.
The study uses robots to surgically place a brain-computer interface implant that is inserted into a region of the brain that controls the intention to move, Neuralink previously reported. The company clarified in a statement that its initial goal was to allow people to control a computer’s cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts.
In another message to X, Musk also commented that Neuralink’s first product will be called Telepathy, a name that corresponds with this goal of making even smartphones work with the mind. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could have communicated faster than a typist or a fast auctioneer”, he explained in his message. “This is the goal.”
Neuralink has been in the spotlight for not specifying the security protocols they apply and have faced quite a few hurdles over these concerns.
One of the tests he showed last year consisted of recordings of monkeys that have received the implant moving a cursor or playing video games.
Musk then replied that “no monkeys have died as a result of the implants”. For these experiments, he clarified, only “terminal” primates were used to minimize the risk of damage to healthy specimens.
In his very personal scientific style, Musk wanted to eliminate any ethical doubts about experimenting with humans as guinea pigs, at the expense of financial gain, and set himself as an example.
At the beginning of the tests he suggested that he could undergo one of those brain chip implants with which he aims to help humanity in collaboration with artificial intelligence.
Neuralink’s motto is “restoring the autonomy of those with unmet medical needs today and unlocking human potential tomorrow”.
