This company experienced notable success after receiving approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last May. His device, already tested on a macaque, allowed him to play the video game “Pong” without using a controller or keyboard. However, this success must be put into perspective with the death of 1,500 animals (monkeys, pigs, rodents, etc.) since the start of the experiments in 2018, mainly due to multiple series of tests instead of individual tests. The deaths led to a federal investigation into violations of animal welfare laws.
Nevertheless, Elon Musk is aiming for ambitious goals such as enabling the paralyzed to walk, restoring sight to the blind, and treating psychological disorders like depression. Between August and November, Elon Musk raised around $323 million to develop "Telepathy", a brain implant that would allow robotic objects to be controlled remotely through thought. His goal is to make this technology accessible to everyone, to improve communication with computers and, according to him, reduce the risks that artificial intelligence represents for our civilization.
Elon Musk announces that a first brain implant has been placed by his start-up on a human
However, this is far from being a world first. In France, a Grenoble company in 2019 allowed a quadriplegic person to animate an exoskeleton and move their arms or move around. The Dutch company Onward announced in September the tests of a double brain-spinal cord implant to allow quadriplegic patients to walk again.
