Between running the show at Tesla and sending his SpaceX rockets into outer space, it's surprising that Elon Musk still has time for his many ambitious side hustles.
His latest bit on the site New Relic has flown under the radar for the past few years. But it's now captivating the world's attention for a reason that's as intriguing as it is scary.
Musk suggests that Neuralink will facilitate his mission to merge humans with artificial intelligence and subsequently save the human race from AI
Most of Musk's businesses run off the backbone of forward-thinking technology but one piece of tech that musk openly fears is AI. He firmly believes that artificial intelligence is the biggest threat to the human race and that advancement in its technology is a dangerous game for us all to be playing.
It sounds a little far-fetched to think that AI could literally wipe out life as we know it but Musk isn't alone in his worries. In its current narrow form AI can already outperform humans at literally any mental task. From solving equations to playing chess but if we were to unleash its full potential and develop AI into a wide form of intelligence it could and would outperform humans in every way imaginable especially if we partner it up with robotics.
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Musk sees only one way of escaping the impending doom of an AI facilitated human extinction and that is to somehow merge our own intelligence with machine intelligence.
Without realizing we are all already somewhat merged with machine intelligence by merely owning a smartphone and having access to the intimate. With the world wide web at our fingertips we are countless times smarter than without.
The only limitation that we have is speed. Searching for information using the internet is slow in the way that we have to find read and process before we can relay any information back out all of this takes time.
The goal of Neuralink is to make this connection between man and machines seamless and the best way to do that is to physically merge the two together using a microchip brain implant.
So what exactly is this first gen brain implant?
Dubbed the N1, the very first Neuralink implant is a tiny four by four millimeter square chip that will be directly implanted into the brain attached to the chip are tiny wires that are ten times thinner than a human which coincidentally is about the same thickness as a Neuron.
The threads are embedded into essential parts of the brain where they can decipher messages that are transmitted between Neurons. The threads then relay that information back to the chip where it records the impulses evaluates the data and then stimulates its own responses.
The chip and wires not only read the information that the brain communicates but also inputs information back into the brain as well.
A single neural link chip will be able to connect and communicate with 1,000 different brain cells and an individual will be able to house as many as 10 implants totaling 10,000 connections.
Testing so far of the N1 chip has been limited but a restricted version with just 256 electrodes did see human patients controlling computer cursors, speech synthesizers and robotic limbs with nothing but the power of their mind.
Currently the best FDA approved brain implant has just 10 connections.
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So with this in mind it's clear that the potential of Neuralink chip is pretty much unrivaled you'd think that the installation of such a device would be really complicated dangerous and invasive.
But Musk has been very clear that the installation of Neuralink chips will be as straightforward as laser eye surgery in the early stages the installation of the chip will be done by the hand of a brain surgeon but eventually the entire procedure will be machine operated.
Neuralink are putting as much effort into the design and development of their robotic surgical device as the chips and Y's themselves. Musk says that it will be able to undertake the procedure more intelligently and accurately than any human could so it's the obvious route to go down.
For the time being the scope for Neuralinks technology will be to help those with physical and mental disabilities, used to help paraplegics with movement amputees control artificial limbs and those with memory loss reform connections. As the Neuralink N1 one chip develops and gets smarter though the possibilities get far more interesting.
I'm sure Mr Musk is over the moon that is tech can and most likely will help those with disabilities but I think it's the more out there possibilities of merging humans with AI but really gets his juices flowing.
In the distant or maybe not so distant future Musk sees Neuralinks AI chips being installed along the same lines as plastic surgery as in it will be an optional surgery that some people but it won't be absolutely mandatory.
Although he also says that if everybody around you has the brainpower of a quantum computer then you will probably be tempted to get the procedure down yourself. Especially if you plan on competing for jobs and keeping up with conversations.
The possibilities of Neuralink’s AI implants are endless and that's not a figure of speech. AI’s knowledge literally has no end point because it's forever learning, working things out and becoming better, all at a rate that we can't even comprehend
To paint a picture for you, with the help of Neuralink you'll be able to do everything that your computer or smartphone can, but directly through thought.
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If you need to answer a question, your brain will just know it because it has untapped access to the Internet, just like how you currently have untapped access to your own knowledge.
With Neuralink, you'll automatically know everything that you'd usually need to ask without even having to pop the question.
Date, Time, Weather, Geographical location, Amitabh Bachchan’s height in inches anything .
The Neuralink is not all about information, it's also about interaction and communication.
Because the embedded AI can wirelessly transmit electrode signals, users will essentially be able to communicate with other computers and chip wearing people with mind power alone.
This communication will be almost instant, as it would have zero of the physical restraints that we currently have attached to speaking and typing. Think of it like pinging a thought into somebody else's Dropbox but faster.
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Neuralink essentially turns you into a living breathing Alexa that can control pretty much anything with an internet connection. Video games, Drones, Cars all powered through force.
Musk mission to merge humans with AI is a pretty crazy concept to wrap your head around but the speed and direction that Neuralink is moving makes it one with genuine possibility. In the immediate future the technology will most likely benefit the lives of countless people.
But who knows how intelligent these chips will really get. I find it strange that Musk is fearful of a computer-based AI but sees no problem with a human based system. I can see hacking, bugs and weaponization being a genuine issue of having a population of Cyborgs. But hopefully with the help of AI we will be smart enough to figure all that out at a later date.
The first human testing of the full spec N1 Neuralink chip is planned for the end of 2021. So it might not be long until we see this technology really taking shape.
Update: 26 April 2022
On Sunday, Musk, the creator of Neuralink brain-interface technology company, urged smartwatch employees and people who had previously worked on phones to join the company. Even if a person has no expertise with artificial intelligence, he said, the abilities learned at a wearable-tech business would be "immediately relevant" to Neuralink's device.
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"For the Neuralink device, it's an electronics/mechanical/software engineering problem that's comparable in complexity to smart watches (which aren't easy! )," Musk remarked on Twitter.
Elon Musk associated Neuralink's brain processor to a smartwatch, and he's on the lookout for smartwatch employees to join his team.
When asked when it will be available, Musk claimed Neuralink is on schedule to begin implanting its technology into humans by the end of the year.
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