Gertrude enjoying a well deserved drink during her performance.
In August 2020, famous tech entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed his latest technological project: a pig called Gertrude. On first sight, Gertrude looks like an ordinary Pig. She seems healthy, curious, and eager to taste some delicious snacks. When looking at her, it is hard to imagine how she managed to get one of the world’s most radical and well known tech entrepreneurs so excited. Gertrude just seems normal.
This is exactly the point!
Elon Musk “Gotcha”
Gertrude is no ordinary pig. She has been surgically implanted with a brain-monitoring chip, Link V0.9, created by one of Elon Musk’s latest start-ups named Neuralink.
Neuralink was founded in 2016, by Elon Musk and several neuroscientists. The short term goal of the company is to create devices to treat serious brain diseases and overcome damaged nervous systems. Our brain is made up of 86 billion neurons: nerve cells which send and receive information through electrical signals. According to Neuralink, your brain is like electric wiring. Rather than having neurons send electrical signals, these signals could be send and received by a wireless Neuralink chip.
To simplify: Link is a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires
The presentation in August was intended to display that the current version of the Link chip works and has no visible side-effects for its user. The user, in this case Gertrude, behaves and acts like she would without it. The chip is designed to be planted directly into the brain by a surgical robot. Getting a Link would be a same day surgery which could take less than an hour. This creates opportunities for Neuralink to go to the next stage: the first human implantation. Elon Musk expressed that the company is preparing for this step, which will take place after further safety testing and receiving the required approvals.
The long term goal of the Neuralink is even more ambitious: human enhancement through merging the human brain with AI. The system could help people store memories, or download their mind into robotic bodies. An almost science-fictional idea, fuelled by Elon Musk’s fear of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Already in 2014, Musk called AI “the biggest existential threat to humanity”. He fears, that with the current development rate, AI will soon reach the singularity: the point where AI has reached intelligence levels substantially greater than that of the human brain and technological growth has become uncontrollable and irreversible, causing unforeseeable effects to human civilization. Hollywood has given us examples of this with The Matrix and Terminator. With the strategy of “if you cannot beat them, join them”, Elon Musk sees the innovation done by Neuralink as an answer to this (hypothetical) catastrophical point in time. By allowing human brains to merge with AI, Elon Musk wants to vastly increase the capabilities of humankind and prevent human extinction.
Man versus Machine
So, will we all soon have Link like chips in our brains while we await the AI-apocalypse?
Probably not. Currently, the Link V0.9 only covers data collected from a small number of neurons in a coin size part of the cortex. With regards to Gertrude, Neuralink’s pig whom we met earlier in this article, this means being able to wirelessly monitor her brain activity in a part of the brain linked to the nerves in her snout. When Gertrude’s snout is touched, the Neuralink system can registers the neural spikes produced by the neurons firing electronical signals. However, in contrast: major human functions typically involve millions of neurons from different parts of the brain. To make the device capable of helping patients with brain diseases or damaged nervous system, it will need to become capable of collecting larger quantities of data from multiple different areas in the brain.
On top of that, brain research has not yet achieved a complete understanding of the human brain. There are many functions and connections that are not yet understood. It appears that the ambitions of both Elon Musk and Neuralink are ahead of current scientific understanding.
So, what next?
Neuralink has received a Breakthrough Device Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the organisation that regulates the quality of medical products. This means Neuralink has the opportunity to interact with FDA’s experts during the premarket development phase and opens the opportunity towards human testing. The first clinical trials will be done on a small group of patients with severe spinal cord injuries, to see if they can regain motor functions through thoughts alone. For now a medical goal with potentially life changing outcomes, while we wait for science to catch up with Elon Musk’s ambitions.
Thank you for reading. Did this article spark your interest?
For more information, I recommend you to check out Neuralink’s website https://neuralink.com/
Curious how Gertrude is doing?
Neuralink often posts updates on their Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/neura.link/?hl=en
Want to read more BIM-articles like this?
Check out relating articles created by other BIM-students in 2020:
Sources used for this article:
- Boyle, A. (2020). With Elon Musk’s help, ‘Three Little Pigs’ demonstrate Neuralink’s brain implant. Retrieved from https://www.geekwire.com/2020/three-little-pigs-help-elon-musk-demonstrate-neuralinks-brain-implant/#:~:text=With%20grudging%20assistance%20from%20a,as%20an%20experimental%20medical%20device.
- CNET (2020). Watch Elon Musk reveal the Neuralink brain chip for the first time. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce-cETUd0W8
- National Geographic (2017). What is Technological Singularity? Origins: The Journey of Humankind. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpKNAHz0zH8&feature=emb_title
- Neuralink (2020). Retrieved from: https://neuralink.com/
Dear Tim,
I also find this topic very interesting and also wrote a blog post about it. I do find it crazy what we can nowadays do with technology but it is true that the human brain is still very complex and it is mechanism not completely understood by humans. The first individuals to dare make use of this will be very courageous.Some challenges might appear such as scaling up the number of electrode or the interconnections between them. Some scientists also believe it could be the solution in treating a lot of brain disorders such as depression, blindness, or memory loss.But, even if it is indeed a very optimistic project, the recent growth of technology it is not impossible to imagine either. Finally, Elon Musk has the advantage of being able to find a huge amount of investments to help the company grow and recruit the best scientist. I might be naïve, but I have hope in NeuraLink.
Hi there Amandine,
I agree with you: I am not sure if I would want to be among the first to give this new technology a try. Although if I were to be in a situation in which I would suffer from a damaged nervous system or a specific brain disease without an existing cure, I would be much more willing to try. I suppose it is hard to imagine how one would decide under such circumstances. With less to lose and a lot to gain. I personally hope that companies like Neuralink push scientific research futher. Like you mentioned, with people like Elon Musk behind it, I do have hope of this technology one day becoming fully viable and achieving both short term and long term goals.
I linked some articles from fellow BIM-students with regards to Neuralink, for those readers interested in more. What is the name of yours and do you want me to post a link to your article in here as well?
Let me know
I always find it fascinating how Elon Musk manages to sell his ideas with this grandeur. I don’t expect neuralink will meet it’s long term goals, which seem very science fiction. But neuroscience is a very interesting field, and as Aminde said the human brain still largely remains a mystery. But progress is being made and I do feel that even if Neuralink does not meet it’s goals it will help drive the industry forward. Monitoring brain activity is currently still a very involved process so i definitely applaud the research into making this more accessible.
Hi Tim,
your post about Neuralink is very insightful. To me it is a scary thought that the chip could be used to enhance our brain capacity, when currently there is no complete understanding of the brain. I do see the benefit in implementing the chip to monitor and maybe even prevent diseases. In this regard, its function reminds me of a cardiac pacemaker.
Did you also do some research about other firms persuing this innovation? I feel as if Neuralink is getting so much press mainly because of its famous founder and it would be interesting to know how it compares to competitors.
Thank you for your comment Davey,
I agree that Elon Musk is probably one of the best hypeman any big tech could wish for. As down to earth Dutchies, we often take his claims of vision with a grain of salt. However, his track record does show us that behind all these big dreams are some very feasible short term applications. While the dream of one day combining humans and AI might still be too far away, using chip technology to help patients of brain diseases or of paralyzing injuries is not that science-fiction. Already certain robotic human body parts, given to patients after a patient loses their human version, operate with sensors and AI. In these examples, it is not the human who makes the body part move. It is the AI who picks up the signals and translates these to movement of the robotic arm.
Here is a cool article:
https://www.medtechdive.com/news/how-ai-and-machine-learning-are-changing-prosthetics/550788/
Hi there Jeanette,
I agree with you on both your points.
I admit I would not want to be among the first (or even second or third..) group to give these chips a try, especially when so much about the brain fuctioning and conciousness is still unkown. Drilling into something so fragile and delicate, which is normally protected by a thick skull, means placing a lot of trust on the automated operational robots which Neuralink uses for the surgery.
I also think you make a valid point about Neuralink gaining more attention than some other companies or research projects. This is mainly due to Elon Musk. Neuralink itself started as a University project by several neuroscientists. They wanted to start a company and required 150 million dollar of initial funding. However, no investors were interested. Till Elon Musk showed up and started to build further on their initial research, which eventually became Neuralink.
While reading up on Neuralink, I also discovered that Neuralink isn’t the only company in this field that is making swift progress. Here are some others:
https://analyticsindiamag.com/top-8-neuralink-competitors-everyone-should-track/