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Elon Musk Launches New Company to Link Brain to Computer

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, has just launched a new company dedicated to linking human brains with computers, according to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal.

As reported, Neuralink will work to develop "neural lace" technology that would allow people to communicate directly with machines without going through a physical interface. Essentially, people could upload or download their thoughts to or from a computer.

While the company is in the very beginning stages, Musk has previously spoken about the idea of a neural lace, especially in relation to advancing AI. The entrepreneur has made his thoughts on AI very clear over the years—he wants to avoid the scenarios that often play out in sci-fi movies like the “Terminator.” So much so that Musk sponsors the non-profit OpenAI, a research company dedicated to enacting the right path to safe artificial general intelligence.

“If you assume any rate of advancement in AI, we will be left behind by a lot. We would be so far below [AI] in intelligence, it would be like a pet. I don’t love the idea of being a house cat,” Musk said at Recode’s 2016 Code Conference, held in June.

Thus, Musk said he believes a neural lace, or a third layer of the brain, is important.

“The solution that seems maybe the best one is to have an AI layer. You have your limbic system, your cortex and a digital layer, so the third layer above the cortex, that could work well and symbiotically with you. Just as your cortex works symbiotically with your limbic system; the third digital layer could work symbiotically with you,” Musk explained at the conference.

According to Musk, the neural lace would not have to be surgically implanted in one’s brain. Instead, the interface could go through veins and arteries since they provide a path to all a person’s neurons.

“It would be some sort of interface directly with your cortical neurons,” he said.

Neuralink’s first product, however, may have nothing to do with AI. According to the Journal’s report, the startup company’s debut product could be implants used to treat disorders like epilepsy or major depression.

Musk is not the first to research brain-computer interface.

Recently, researchers at Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland reported a computer interface that can decipher the thoughts of people who are unable to communicate. Additionally, novel brain-computer interface technology created by University of California, Irvine researchers has allowed a paraplegic man to walk for a short distance. A 2015 article published in Nature Nanotechnology describes an electronic mesh that could be injected into the brain using a syringe.

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