American newspaper: Elon Musk receives a license to implant a chip in the brain of a second patient

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American neurotechnology company Neuralink has received permission from US authorities to implant a Telepathy chip into the brain of a second patient.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Elon Musk's company has committed to fixing the problems that appeared in the first test participant and intends to implant the device's very thin wires deeper into the new patient's brain.

It is noteworthy that Musk announced on January 28 the success of implanting the “Neuralink” implant in the human brain. The first volunteer, 29-year-old Nolan Arbo, said he was paralyzed in an accident about eight years ago, which left him without any feeling in the area below his shoulders. The man was able to move the cursor on the chessboard on his laptop screen with the power of thinking and rearranging the pieces. However, a month later, the Wall Street Journal noted that most of the leads implanted in Arbaugh's brain had weakened and were no longer reading the electrical signals needed to convert his thoughts into cursor movements.

However, the company did not change the design of the implant, but rather decided to implant it deeper into the motor cortex of the brain. In the case of Arbo, the implant was inserted to a depth of 3-5 mm, and in the case of the second patient, it will be implanted to a depth of 8 mm. According to experts, this is enough for the electrodes to remain in place. Neuralink's arguments convinced US regulatory authorities, which granted a license to implant a brain-computer interface into the brain of another patient.

It is noteworthy that the startup Neuralink was created by Elon Musk in July 2016, and is developing chips that can eventually be implanted in the human brain. The businessman believes that such neural interfaces will allow a person to become a robot capable of resisting artificial intelligence, and will also help humans learn to directly control a computer using the power of thought. On May 25, 2023, the company reported that it had obtained permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical trials on humans.