ELON Musk wants to “give people superpowers” like eagle vision with his controversial Neuralink brain chip.
The tech billionaire revealed that a second person is testing the implant, which is designed to help paralyzed patients control digital devices with just their thoughts.
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Noland Arbaugh, 29, became the first human to be chipped after a “freak diving accident” eight years ago dislocated two of his vertebrae, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down.
The Arizona-born user already had a stick in his mouth to touch the screen.
With Neuralink, all he has to do is think about what he wants the computer to do and it will happen.
This reduced Arbaugh’s dependence on a caregiver — and even allowed him to play video games with friends.
Musk, 53, revealed in a podcast that another paralyzed person now uses Neuralink.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but it looks like it went really well with the second implant,” he told podcast host Lex Fridman.
“There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It’s working very well.”
He did not share when the surgery was performed.
But Musk said he expects Neuralink to be implanted in eight more patients this year as part of ongoing clinical trials.
“Let’s give people superpowers,” he continued.
“Do you want to see it on the radar? No problem.
“You can see ultraviolet, infrared, eagle vision, whatever you want.”
Musk also envisions Neuralink enabling “symbiosis” between humans and AI to prevent technology from overtaking us.
“It’s an idea that can help with AI security,” he explained.
“We could better align the collective human will with AI if the rate of production increased dramatically.
“And I think there’s potential to increase the production rate by, I don’t know, three, maybe six, maybe more orders of magnitude. So it’s better than the current situation.”
He said the implant will eventually have the power to repair damaged neurons to help with conditions such as blindness and paralysis.
“It can also probably resolve schizophrenia if people have some type of seizure,” he said.
“It could probably solve that. It could help with memory.”
Musk’s wealth and business revealed
Elon Musk is the second richest man in the world, with a net worth of US$196.5 billion.
The 52-year-old co-founded six major companies, including X.com, which eventually became PayPal.
Ebay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
He used $100 million from the sale to launch SpaceX, one of the world’s leading spaceflight companies, with ambitions to eventually travel to Mars.
The company also provides Starlink Internet services broadcast from SpaceX satellites.
Musk was also an early investor in Tesla and is now the electric car giant’s largest shareholder.
One of his most notorious business ventures was the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter – which was later renamed X in a nod to its early success.
But Musk’s most controversial project is Neuralink, a company that is creating brain technology implants to help people with neurological disorders.
The South African-born businessman was the richest man in the world for a time, but lost the crown in 2024.
He also broke the Guinness World Record for the largest loss of personal wealth, estimated by Forbes at around $165 billion.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
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