Can Elon Musk Really Create Cyborgs With His Brain Chip Technology?

In 2019, Tony Howells, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, attempted to go for a walk with his wife. After walking 200 yards, he realized his Parkinson’s symptoms would not allow him to continue, explaining, “I had to turn around and go back because I just couldn’t walk.”

The following year, Howells had an implant surgically placed in his brain to treat his symptoms. Soon after the surgery, he again attempted a walk. This time, the brain chip made it possible. He said, “We went for 2.5 miles, and we could’ve went further.”

Howells’ story demonstrates how quickly brain chip technology is advancing. In early trials, scientists have seen positive results for helping patients suffering from depression and epilepsy. 

Researchers have studied this technology for several decades. However, Elon Musk wants to take brain chip technology further. Musk’s company Neuralink is creating brain chips as medical devices. But his long-term goals for the technology include enabling telepathy, downloading memories, and creating cyborg-like humans that can keep up with increasingly dominant AI.

“The future is going to be weird,” Musk says.

Despite Musk’s desire to lead humanity into a sci-fi world, critics say his goals are not feasible, and his impatience to reach lofty goals could be dangerous. Keep reading to learn about the Neuralink brain chip so you can know what’s in store for the future.

What Is Elon Musk’s Neuralink Brain Chip?

The Neuralink brain chip is an implant that aims to treat brain diseases and enhance human abilities. The chip is composed of up to 3,000 electrodes that locate electrical signals in the brain. These electrodes are located on flexible probes that are inserted into the brain with a surgical robot. Musk has called this chip a “Fitbit in the skull.”

ASU neuroscientist Bradley Greger explains how Neuralink’s technology has advanced the field of brain chip technology, stating: “[The chip] is really teeny, tiny, and this is where what Neuralink has done is astounding. The actual electrodes that go into the brain are smaller than a human hair—they’re microscopic, and that’s what really has been a great technological advance.”

According to Musk, this technology could solve a wide array of health problems, including depression, insomnia, schizophrenia, obesity, and paralysis, among other conditions. But his end goal is to create a device for the general population that will allow humans to connect directly to computers and keep up with advancing artificial intelligence. 

While Musk has lofty goals for the Neuralink chip, progress was temporarily halted when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied approval for the company to begin human trials. For now, the Neuralink team’s tests are limited to animals. 

Musk’s Vision: Cyborgs Competing With AI

While Musk is far from the first person to attempt to create a brain implant, the key differentiation factor in his company is his stated long-term goal of creating cyborg-like humans that can keep up with potentially dangerous AI. 

Musk has often expressed concerns that AI poses a threat to humans, saying, “Generally, people underestimate the capability of AI. They sort of think it’s like a smart human, but it’s going to be much more than that. It’ll be much smarter than the smartest human.”

He created Neuralink as an answer to the AI threat, joking, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

While Musk’s interest in creating cyborgs may sound outlandish, he suggested that it’s not so different from the world we already live in, explaining, “People don’t realize—we are already a cyborg because we are so well integrated with our phones and our computers. The phone is almost like an extension of yourself. If you forget your phone, it’s like a missing limb. But the communication bandwidth to the phone is very low, especially input.”

Communication between the brain and a computer or smartphone is currently limited to a user’s typing, speaking, and reading speed. But Musk wants the brain chip to make communication nearly instantaneous.

In Musk’s vision, users with the interface could also communicate with each other using just the brain chip. Sensors could also be adjusted to allow humans to see infrared light, UV rays, or any other type of lighting.

Are Brain Implants a Possibility or a Fantasy?

Brain implants are not only feasible—they have already been successfully used to treat thousands of patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson’s. The Neuralink chip is just one example of a brain computer interface (BCI), a technology that has been researched since the 1970s. If successful, Musk’s plans for Neuralink will build on decades of progress in the BCI field.

Though BCIs are already a reality, many scientists believe Musk’s loftier goals for the brain chips are pure fiction. For example, Musk believes the brain computer interfaces could allow humans to back up memories to the cloud, commenting, “You could potentially download them into a new body or into a robot body.” 

Miguel Nicolelis, a Duke University neuroscience professor and a pioneer of BCI research, has been a vocal critic of Musk’s work at Neuralink, saying, “The guy is a master of selling things that may never work. They will never make people download their emotions or their deep cognitive functions, and they’ll never make people learn French by uploading French grammar to a brain-machine interface.”

Andrew Jackson, a professor of neural interfaces at Newcastle University, similarly expressed doubts regarding Musk’s claims about the possibilities of Neuarlink’s brain chips, explaining, “There is a big difference between recording brain cells and ‘reading thoughts,’ especially when it comes to higher-level cognitive functions we don’t understand as well.”

Moving Forward at Impossible Speeds

Though tech giant Mark Zuckerberg coined the phrase “Move fast, break things,” Elon Musk, who is well known for setting ambitious timelines at all his companies, exemplifies this attitude. Prioritizing innovation over caution worked for Musk while developing Tesla’s electric vehicles. But research into the human brain is more complicated.

A former Neuralink employee told Reuters that Musk wants to run Neuralink like Tesla and often gets upset about the slow progress. The source states, “He can’t appreciate that this is not a car. This is a person’s brain. This is not a toy.”

Fortune reports that another former Neuralink employee revealed, “There was this top-down dissatisfaction with the pace of progress even though we were moving at unprecedented speeds. Still, Elon was not satisfied.”

Reuters spoke with former and current employees about the problems caused by the breakneck speed Musk demands. Three sources reported they had repeatedly heard Musk say to imagine a bomb strapped to their heads to get them to move more quickly. Several employees complained that the speed caused unnecessary suffering for animals during experiments. 

Musk is anxious to start human trials at Neuralink. He’s claimed four times since 2019 that the company would soon be ready for human testing. However, the complaints about the haste and carelessness during animal trials do not inspire confidence that human trials will go more smoothly. 

The FDA rejected Neuralink’s 2022 application to begin human trials. Their concerns included the possibility of the device’s tiny threads migrating to other areas of the brain, which could cause harm to the brain. The agency also does not believe Neuralink has demonstrated that its battery is safe, that the device can be easily removed, or that it won’t overheat. 

Considering the Implications of Elon Musk’s Brain Chip

While BCI research races forward, some experts raise concerns about the ethics of this technology. In 2016, researchers spoke with members of a focus group for people who had received a brain implant.

One focus group member said, “You just wonder how much is you anymore, and you wonder: How much of it is my thought pattern? How would I deal with this if I didn’t have the stimulation system? You kind of feel artificial.”

Confusion about identity could become much more intense if brain chip technology advances to allow you to download information and memories. 

Others are concerned about the inequality that could result from commercialized brain chips. A 2016 Pew Research study found that 73% of individuals surveyed believe inequality will increase if brain chips become available because, initially, they will be obtainable only by the wealthy.

Dr. Karola Kreitmair, Assistant Professor of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, explains that BCI technology has several issues to discuss as the field advances. She states, “I don’t think there is sufficient public discourse on what the big picture implications of this kind of technology becoming available are.”

Cyborgs or Not, the Neuralink Brain Chip Is Worth Watching

Whether or not Elon Musk can deliver on his promise to create cyborgs, as Neuralink’s research continues, many individuals with medical conditions like paralysis or blindness are watching Neuralink’s progress hopefully to see when the brain chip technology will advance enough to really make a difference in their lives. 

Although he’s skeptical about the extent to which Musk can achieve his promises, ASU’s Bradley Gregor believes there’s much to look forward to with Elon Musk’s brain chip. Gregor’s research has centered on restoring vision to blind individuals using BCI technology. 

“Musk is talking about almost restoring natural vision as we understand it. I think that is very far in the future. Again, it is theoretically possible, but I don’t think that’s going to happen in my lifetime,” Gregor explains. “But for it to be beneficial to somebody, they don’t have to have fully complete natural vision. But rather something that just helps them work—do their job, go to the supermarket. That would be huge, and that is possible. And I think we will see that relatively soon.”

To learn more about Elon Musk, check out “4 Ways to Apply Elon Musk’s Leadership Style.”