Neuralink: Elon Musk Holds Demo for Brain Implant, Internet Isn’t Too Thrilled

During a presentation on Friday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled more details about his mysterious neuroscience company Neuralink by revealing a development that feels like it could have come straight out of an episode of Black Mirror: a coin-sized implantable device that inserts electrode threads into the brain. Musk’s presentation didn’t just come with theoretical concepts, either. The event showcased real-time neural signals from a pig named Gertrude who had one of the devices — which Musk described as a “Fitbit in your skull” — already implanted.

However, while Musk played up the various conditions that could be treated with the Neuralink device — such as seizures, paralysis, brain damage, depression and more, conditions that Musk said “can all be solved with an implantable neural link” (via Vox) — Musk also noted that he has bigger plans for the device. Musk explained that he sees the device as being able to allow humans to keep up with artificial intelligence as a brain-computer interface meant for consumers.

On a lot of levels, the concept is one that is exciting to think about, but for many on the internet, the benefits didn’t exactly outweigh the risks especially with it coming from Musk. Many cited issues with some of the billionaire’s previous “revolutionary” creations — including the Cybertruck — while others flat-out didn’t trust Musk, alluding to all the ways the implant could go wrong or could be misused.

Some of the concerns were things that Musk himself touched on, noting that mainstream use of the Neuralink device was likely more than a decade away and that there were many ethical and safety issues to consider.

“There will be ethical and safety issues to work through, and for a long time, it’s likely that you’ll have to have a real medical need to access this technology,” Musk said.

Still, the internet isn’t so sure. Read on to see how the internet is reacting to Musk’s Neuralink technology and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Header Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Consequences

Is this really what we want?

Hard pass

Not sold on it

Snake oil

Not the best track record

Anyone else

“Really cool”

Yikes

This, but when the stakes are higher