Elon Musk, the tech genius who owns Neuralink, predicted that the number of people who would be numbed to have his chips implanted within the next 20 years would be “hundreds of millions.” Neuralink officially announced its first successful medical implants in patients in the year 2024.
A post that Musk made on X stated, “If everything goes according to plan, there will be hundreds of people with Neuralinks within a few years, possibly tens of thousands within five years, and millions within ten years.”
At this point, one year later, we inquire as to whether or not his forecast has begun to materialize.
Musk is of the opinion that the development of artificial intelligence and the desire of humans to keep up with it are the factors that will lead to the need for chip implants.
Patients Noland Arbaugh, a man who was paralyzed below his shoulders as a result of a car accident, had a Neuralink chip implanted into various regions of his brain tissue by neurosurgeons in January of 2024.
Elon Musk: Hundreds of millions of people could have Neuralinks in the future.
Lex Fridman: “Do you think there will be a world in the next couple of decades where hundreds of millions of people have Neuralinks?”
Elon: “Yeah, I do. If it’s extremely safe, and you can have… pic.twitter.com/PN7suBzMpn
— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) January 12, 2025
Each of the chip’s 64 flexible threads was shorter than a human hair, and the chip itself was about the size of a coin.
Arbaugh did not make a single move while he was simultaneously playing chess and other online games during a demonstration that was broadcast live. He explained that participating in the experience was similar to using the “Force powers” from the Star Wars franchise.
Neuralink was able to restore Arbaugh’s capabilities after making some adjustments to their algorithm. This occurred approximately one month after Arbaugh’s performance began to decline.
Using computer-aided design (CAD) software, the second patient to receive their chip, “Alex,” is successfully designing three-dimensional objects and playing video games, according to a blog post published by Neuralink.
Why Neuralink is the most important company this decade!@neuralink is delivering life-changing value to humanity and is at an inflection point as goes from being a technology in the lab to people’s homes this year.
As an investor, we look for transformative innovations — where… pic.twitter.com/P4evc45t5V
— Apoorv Agrawal (@apoorv03) December 12, 2024
In the blog post, it was noted that “we implemented a number of mitigations in order to reduce the probability of thread retraction in our second participant.” These mitigations included minimizing the amount of brain motion that occurred during the surgery and minimising the distance that existed between the implant and the surface of the brain.
In order to assist individuals with quadriplegia in regaining their independence, this represents yet another crucial step toward the provision of a high-performance interface that will improve the control of digital devices.
We are delighted to work with additional people to assist them in reconnecting with their passions, and we believe that in the future, the Link will be able to assist a large number of people in creating in their own areas of interest and competence.
Update about the second Neuralink device in a human.
If all goes well, there will be hundreds of people with Neuralinks within a few years, maybe tens of thousands within 5 years, millions within 10 years, … https://t.co/opy1xj5JgF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2024
The beneficiaries of the chips, according to Elon Musk, will outperform professional gamers within the next two years and will enable human brains to function more quickly.
When asked about the connection between humans and computers, Musk made an analogy to plants and stated, “Our slow output rate would diminish the link between humans and computers.” Consider the following scenario: you take a look at this plant or whatever it is, and you think to yourself, “Hey, I’d really like to make that plant happy, but it’s not saying a lot.”
Elon Musk’s plans for the foreseeable future are largely focused on improving the rates at which brain data is transmitted. In his explanation, Musk stated that the low data rate of humans, particularly our slow output rate, would weaken the connection between humans and computers. He then proposed increasing the speed of brain signals “by three, maybe six, or more orders of magnitude.”