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- Elon Musk appeared in a livestream with Neuralink executives to give updates about the company.
- The CEO said he eventually wants "to give people superpowers" through Neuralink's brain-chips.
- Musk provided a timeline for testing new patients and gave details about the next device.
Elon Musk wants "to give people superpowers," according to a livestream Neuralink update broadcast on X Wednesday.
The CEO took the moment to provide an overview of what's been done and give his future projections about the brain chip. The chip contains an array of tiny wires that fan out into the patient's brain. The wires are equipped with electrodes that can monitor brain activity and in theory, send electronic signalsto stimulate the brain.
The company's current priority is treating patients with neurological conditions. Neuralink's first patient, Noland Arbaugh, received the brain chip in January and has since said it improved his life.
But Musk said in the livestream that, eventually, he sees the technology being able to provide better functionality than those without neurological conditions.
Musk also added that he envisioned a world in which Optimus and Neuralink technology give people "cybernetic superpowers" by implanting arms or legs from Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus in people who have lost parts.
Musk is known to make ambitious promises for the future — some of which he ends up revising. But the CEO also gave some concrete answers about what can be expected in the the short term in terms of testing and a second product.
- Musk started off the livestream by saying the second Neuralink patient is expected to receive an implant in the next week or so. The procedure, which was originally supposed to be toward the end of June, was delayed because of health issues the patient had, according to a Bloomberg report.
- Neuralink is creating a second device that will require half the number of electrodes used in the first. Musk said the current device has 64 threads with 16 electrodes on each thread, and the next device has double the amount of threads with half the electrodes per thread. Musk said that could create double the bandwidth, which would theoretically make it more powerful.
- Neuralink will be taking risk mitigation measures including skull sculpting, which will bring the implant closer to the brain and reduce pressure on threads. This will prevent threads from retracting, which happened in the first trial when the skull was untouched.
- Musk said "if things go well," he expects Neuralink to test patients in the "high single digits his year." Within a few years, he said the chip could be tested on thousands of people, depending on technical progress and regulatory approval.
To some people's surprise, Musk also made sure to note that Neuralink has not placed chips in random people's brains.
"But in the future, if you would like us to put in the brain, which will perhaps help with the issue of thinking that you have a chip in your brain, then we will be able to do so," Musk said.