In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup company, with an investment of $100 million.
Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain to facilitate its merging with machines.
Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software.
The company also hopes to develop devices with which to treat neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and spinal cord injuries
In 2019, Musk announced work on a device akin to a sewing machine that could embed threads into a human brain.
Musk is listed as the sole author of an October 2019 paper that details some of Neuralink's research although Musk's being listed as such rankled the Neuralink team's researchers.
At a 2020 live demonstration, Musk described one of their early devices as "a Fitbit in your skull" that could soon cure paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other disabilities.
Many neuroscientists and publications criticized these claims with MIT Technology Review describing them as "highly speculative" and "neuroscience theater".
During the demonstration, Musk revealed a pig with a Neuralink implant that tracked neural activity related to smell. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year.
Neuralink has conducted further animal testing on macaque monkeys at the University of California, Davis' Primate Research Center. In 2021, the company released a video in which a Macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trialswhich have caused the deaths of some monkeys have led to claims of animal cruelty.
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