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Elon Musk’s Neuralink reports trouble with first human brain chip (arstechnica.com)

submitted 5 months ago by Stopthatgirl7 to c/technology

62 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The first invasive brain chip that Neuralink embedded into a human brain has malfunctioned, with neuron-surveilling threads appearing to have become dislodged from the participant's brain, the company revealed in a blog post Wednesday.

It's unclear what caused the threads to become "retracted" from the brain, how many have retracted, or if the displaced threads pose a safety risk. Neuralink, the brain-computer interface startup run by controversial billionaire Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Ars. The company said in its blog post that the problem began in late February, but it has since been able to compensate for the lost data to some extent by modifying its algorithm.

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[–] JJROKCZ 31 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

Guy has nothing left to lose really, I don’t blame him for taking this risk considering I would strongly consider it myself were I in his situation

[–] slaacaa 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Yes, unfortunately this is the case. In an article I read the guy was able to pay chess and Age of Empires with his thoughts and the chip, quite impressive tech indeed, it’s just that you absolutely cannot trust anything near Musk

[–] curiousPJ 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

OCZ back in the day (2008) had a brainwave game controller... didn't need surgery for that.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16826100006

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The only thing he could lose is only a few important brain functions, if something truly does go wrong. Nothing major. /s

[–] Buddahriffic 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I mean, in that position I'd probably be willing to gamble with my life. Not with Musk involved, but if there was a similar opportunity without his involvement. It would be an honorable death, too, as long as it didn't result in a halt on the research.

If I could fully trust the ones doing it, there is a certain % of death risk I'd be willing to take as a healthy person once the tech is more mature. The possibilities of such technology are endless, especially as the tech becomes more interactive rather than just observing and acting on those observations. I'm not sure if I'd want to live in the Matrix, but I'd love to at least visit it or play VR games based on that tech. Altered Carbon would be interesting, too.

[–] beebarfbadger 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sure, the possibilities are endless, so the first thing we'll get that has any research money and effort put into it is how to turn it into an advertising platform and then maximally enshittifying it as soon as there's a market share to speak of.

[–] Buddahriffic 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, that "if I could trust it" is pulling a lot of weight there. Like I decline fucking website cookies. Tech like that has way more invasive potential. Maybe they wouldn't even need to advertise and could directly make you just buy things or give them free labour. You'd just need a module to make a person act like a normal happy person and then with that could potentially do anything "under the hood" without being detected. The possibilities are endless in the dystopian direction, too. Realistically, "if I could trust it" isn't a requirement that can be met.

[–] beebarfbadger 3 points 5 months ago

Oh, they'd never do anything as sinister as that. That may still be illegal (if the ultra-rich lobbying hasn't taken care of that obstacle by that point).

Instead, they'll just make sure that whatever essential core service they've built a monopoly in by just muscling the poorer competitors out of the race will cease to be offered to you if you refuse to hand all your money over to them.

See also: insulin, hospital treatment, etc. This is just a new playing field to find old prey in.