At least four times since 2019, Elon Musk has predicted that his medical device company, Neuralink, will soon begin testing revolutionary brain implants in humans to treat difficult conditions such as paralysis and blindness.
However, Elon and Neuralink's dreams have to be put on hold, at least for now. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected the application of the company founded in 2016 to implant chips in human brains.
In his explanation to Neuralink about the decision. The FDA outlines various issues that must be addressed before testing on humans. These are all important milestones on the way until the final product can be approved.
Cited from Reuters, Sunday (5/3/2023) The FDA particularly highlighted safety concerns involving the device's lithium battery, the potential for the implant's tiny cables to migrate to other areas of the brain, and various questions about whether and how the device could be removed without damaging brain tissue. .
In November 2022, Elon Musk confidently claimed that his company would get approval from the regulator within six months or in the first quarter of 2023. But the estimate of the richest man in the world was wrong.
But the optimism of the SpaceX boss is actually not without reason. Previously, it had been tested on monkeys and worked. Musk said the electrodes could listen to brain activity by capturing signals from the brain of a monkey named Pager playing the classic video game Pong.
Experiments have also been done on a pig. Elon Musk insisted on conducting trials on the grounds that his chip would benefit people with severe disabilities.
It is very confident that Neuralink will make paralyzed people walk, blind people see, and eventually turn people into cyborgs. In reality, Elon still has to be patient and work hard to get clinical trial approval.