Skip to main content

Elon Musk plans ‘show and tell’ event on brain-computer technology

Elon Musk, the owner of Neuralink, said the company will be providing an update about its research on October 31. This comes shortly after reports surfaced of Musk’s frustration with the slow progress.

Neuralink aims to develop an interface that allows direct connection of a human brain and computer technology. If successful, you might someday expand your processing capabilities and sensory perception through hardware upgrades. That’s the futuristic angle that Elon Musk pitched when first introducing this new endeavor.

Elon Musk stands in front of the Neuralink logo.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

What is more likely to arrive first is medical assistance for people that have some form of paralysis. Bypassing the body’s nervous system, a robotic arm or leg might allow a person with limited mobility to move around and manipulate objects as if using their own limbs.

Recommended Videos

On October 31, the current state of the Neuralink technology will be demonstrated in a “show and tell,” according to Musk’s Tweet. There might be extra pressure on the Neuralink team to make an impression with this update, since Musk is said to have approached competitors rather than relying solely on his in-house team of experts.

Neuralink progress update show & tell on October 31 st (Halloween)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 22, 2022

According to a recent Reuters report, unnamed sources say Musk spoke with Paradromics, Inc. in 2020, and more recently, Synchron. Synchron’s Stentrode was the first brain-computer interface to be implanted in a human in the United States, with the operation taking place on July 6.

Musk is not averse to making big changes if new technology or circumstances call for a different approach. Tesla’s switch away from radar-aided, driver-assist systems to completely vision-based, self-driving is a perfect example. Despite radar hardware existing on every Tesla produced before May 2021, it has been switched off to focus solely on the vehicles’ cameras and machine learning systems trained on vision.

If Synchron or other competitors have a better solution, it would not be surprising to learn that Neuralink is changing directions in the future. In the near term, we have to wait until October to find out if Neuralink is sharing any treats.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Alan Truly
Alan Truly is a Writer at Digital Trends, covering computers, laptops, hardware, software, and accessories that stand out as…
Brain-computer interfaces have been implanted in humans for the first time
brain computer interfaces implanted in humans for the first time synchron bci stentrode and io

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is now in clinical trials on human patients, the first time this has ever happened in the United States. With all of the buzz around Neuralink, one might expect this breakthrough would come from Elon Musk's moonshot company. However, the honor goes to a lesser-known brain interface technology leader, Synchron, and its Stentrode device.

While flashy claims of BCIs allowing VR games without a headset and amplifying human intelligence might make headlines, those are distant dreams. Meanwhile, tangible solutions to medical problems that affect patients today are being addressed by Synchron and other BCI innovators.

Read more
This incredible brain-reading headset aims to make mice and keyboards obsolete
galea mind computer interface headset

Conor Russomanno is working on some pretty lofty stuff: He's building a headset that will be able to noninvasively read people’s thoughts and use them to control the computer interfaces of tomorrow. But right now, his big worry is whether or not he chose the right name for his startup.

“You know,” said Russomanno, the co-founder and CEO of a brain-computer interface startup called OpenBCI, “sometimes I wish that we had named our company OpenMCI -- like, mind computer interface or something like that.”

Read more
Meta’s new AI app lets you share your favorite prompts with friends
Meta AI WhatsApp widget.

Meta has been playing the AI game for a while now, but unlike ChatGPT, its models are usually integrated into existing platforms rather than standalone apps. That trend ends today -- the company has launched the Meta AI app and it appears to do everything ChatGPT does and more.

Powered by the latest Llama 4 model, the app is designed to "get to know you" using the conversations you have and information from your public Meta profiles. It's designed to work primarily with voice, and Meta says it has improved responses to feel more personal and conversational. There's experimental voice tech included too, which you can toggle on and off to test -- the difference is that apparently, full-duplex speech technology generates audio directly, rather than reading written responses.

Read more