You’d imagine that Elon Musk is a pretty busy guy, with all the rockets, the cars and now the underground tunnels in LA making headlines.
Apparently none of those things are enough to keep him from investing in a new business, one that would lead to cranial computers that can treat diseases and make human being smarter in order to keep up with the impending rise of artificial intelligence.
The new business, according to the Wall Street Journal, is called Neuralink, and its main function will be to establish a direct connection between the human brain and a computer.
It seems Musk has taken a big role within the California-based startup, which has apparently already hired several high profile people in the field of neuroscience, such as nano tech expert Dr. Vanessa Tolosa, UCSF professor Philip Sabes and Boston University professor Timothy Gardner, who studies neural pathways in the brains of songbirds, as reported by Engadget.
Just as you’d expect with Tesla or SpaceX, Neuralink will first present a working prototype in order to demonstrate that the technology is safe for humans, before they move on to bigger goals such as increasing health and performance. The tech could treat diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s or depression, and eventually could lead to us having AI streaming directly into our brains – although that’s more of a long-term goal.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Musk went on record stating that “for a meaningful partial-brain interface, I think we’re roughly four or five years away.” If that’s truly the case, we can look forward to a pretty wild next decade.
