Elon Musk’s Neuralink Human Brain Chip Experiments Aren’t Going Too Well

Elon Musk’s Neuralink has announced that the first human brain chip has malfunctioned, with some of the threads dislodging from the participant’s brain. It’s an incredibly concerning matter that has a lot of people worried and it’s not yet clear how these threads were dislodged in the first place.

Neuralink posted the progress on their company blog, revealing that patient Noland Arbaugh initially had a positive experience with the brain chip at first. The patient was able to do daily activities, play online games, and do things on their own again, which was encouraging to hear at first.

However, as the blog continues, it reveals that the human brain chip malfunctioned a few weeks after the surgery happened. It’s not yet known why some of the threads started dislodging, but this did decrease the number of electrodes in the patient’s brain. While the refinements did help and make the chip better, the fact it happened in the first place was concerning.

Ars Technica covered the story, asking both Elon Musk and Neuralink how the dislodging happened, not getting a response from either camp as of this writing. There’s the possibility that air was trapped in the brain during the surgery, but adjustments were made and Arbaugh seems to be doing okay.

It will be interesting to see if these trials end positively, as there are people who are in need of help and these chips could really do that. Right now, we’re clearly in the early stages of these chips working, as patients have noticed quirks in them. Hopefully, these will be fixed in the future and they become a common part of society for the foreseeable future.

Elon Musk once said that he would take a Neuralink human brain chip after the trials prove to be a success, but we’ll wait and see. The billionaire continues to be a controversial figure these days, especially with the way he runs Twitter.

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