Elon Musk's Neuralink has stuck a device in someone's brain and he's already talking up its theoretical uses: 'Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist'

Elon Musk, billionaire and chief executive officer of Tesla, at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Friday, June 16, 2023. Musk predicted his Neuralink Corp. would carry out its first brain implant later this year.
(Image credit: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The first patient to receive a brain-computer implant from Neuralink is doing well after the procedure, company founder and billionaire Elon Musk has said on X

Neuralink aims to produce a brain-computer interface (BCI) that will allow a human to control and communicate with a computer using only their brain activity. The company, which was founded by Elon Musk, received the go-ahead for human trials last year from the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA), and it's already completed the first procedure towards bringing its BCI to a wider market.

"Our brain-computer interface is fully implantable, cosmetically invisible, and designed to let you control a computer or mobile device anywhere you go," Neuralink says of its implant on its website.

Neuralink's BCI is called Telepathy, and Musk says that the first wave of users that the company is targeting with the product are those that have lost the use of their limbs. Scrolling through Musk's X account doesn't leave me with the utmost faith in his ability to spearhead this important technology, though Neuralink is not the only company investigating BCIs.

Neuralink is far from the only company in the field of BCIs, and neither is it the first to implant a BCI within a patient. In 2022, Synchron implanted a BCI into a patient allowing him to communicate through thought alone using a computer. Synchron has been described as being in a race with Neuralink for neuro-implant technologies, and is being part funded by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Similarly, the BBC reports on a Swiss researchers' implant which led to a paralysed patient regaining the ability to walk.

A mock-up of a Neuralink connection to a phone.

Neuralink offers this mock-up on its website of a mobile app that would connect to one of its BCI implants. (Image credit: Neuralink)
Virtual reality

(Image credit: Valve)

Best VR headset: which kit should you choose?
Best graphics card: you need serious GPU power for VR
Best gaming laptop: don't get tied to your desktop in VR

Another billionaire in favour of BCI technology may come as a surprise to some. It's Gabe Newell, the founder and CEO of Valve. Newell has said previously that BCI implants could lend to a future of gaming that is superior to reality, and has confirmed that Valve is working on BCI software.

Gamers will be no stranger to the concept of BCIs, however. They're central components to skill trees from many games in the past few decades, including Cyberpunk 2077 and the late-great Deus Ex series. Though neither of those two series' writers looked too fondly on the whole neural-computer mash-up. In fact, both games have humans succumbing or abusing this technology as a central component of the storyline.

Nevertheless, there are clear benefits to a BCI when used alongside technologies intended to improve the freedom, quality of life, or mobility of those with disabilities. So, let's start with that and see where we end up.

Jacob Ridley
Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, and would go on to run the team as hardware editor. He joined PC Gamer's top staff as senior hardware editor before becoming managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll now find him reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries and testing the newest PC components.

Read more
Neuralink
In 2024 Elon Musk predicted that 'hundreds of millions' of people will have his brain chips within the next 20 years, so don't forget to hold him to it
CHONGQING, CHINA - OCTOBER 30: In this photo illustration - The Facebook app page is displayed on a smartphone in the Apple App Store in front of the Meta Platforms, inc. logo on October 30, 2024 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
Meta might've done something useful, pioneering an AI model that can interpret brain activity into sentences with 80% accuracy
The Cortical Labs CL1 biological computer
The world's first 'body in a box' biological computer costs $35,000 and looks both cool as hell plus creepy as heck
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 06: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the OpenAI DevDay event on November 06, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Altman delivered the keynote address at the first-ever Open AI DevDay conference.(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In a mere decade 'everyone on Earth will be capable of accomplishing more than the most impactful person can today' says OpenAI boss Sam Altman
A young man runs on the spot in a studio. The set contains a yellow post box, two yellow road signs, a set of traffic lights, and a bicycle haphazardly stren around. The man is wearing the Halliday smart glasses and a green text overlay attempts to artistically demonstrate how the man is using the smart glasses to give him directions while he runs.
The 'um, actually' guy you know just got infinitely more powerful with these AI glasses
A still from a YouTube video showing The Swedish Maker cutting a piece of wood with power tools while wearing a Meta Quest 3 VR headset.
YouTuber The Swedish Maker wears a Meta Quest 3 VR headset for his entire woodworking project and miraculously emerges with all fingers intact
Latest in Hardware
A pink GameSir Nova Lite, and a purple 8BitDo Ultimate 2C float in a teal void.
Hall effect controllers are so cheap now I’ve got a deal for you AND your player two
Peely from Fortnite with banana-fied Wolverine claws.
Fortnite comes to Snapdragon: Epic Games announces upcoming Arm support for its Easy Anti-Cheat software
Texas Instruments MSPM0C1104 tiny chip
World's smallest microcontroller looks like I could easily accidentally inhale it but packs a genuine 32-bit Arm CPU
Varjo Aero
Varjo Aero VR headsets seem to be not working on RTX 5090s, and its community is opting for strange solutions while waiting for an Nvidia driver release to fix it
A pasta "display" on a table showing the word "keep" surrounded by fruit. Obviously.
Penne for your thoughts: This pasta display can show three individual frames and it's trying its best, okay
Intel engineers inspect a lithography machine
Finally some good vibes from Intel as stock jumps 15% on new CEO hire and Arizona fab celebrates 'Eagle has landed' moment for its 18A node
Latest in News
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021
Storm trooper hero
Another live service shooter is getting shut down, this time before it even launched on Steam