Elon Musk says Neuralink's brain chip is finally ready for human trials, initial focus to be on restoring vision

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, on Thursday said that Neuralink, the billionaire's brain-computer, is now ready to begin human trials in the next six months, with first focus on restoring vision.

Musk's company, based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Austin, Texas, is developing a brain chip interface that will help disabled patients move and communicate again.

After the stream, Musk confirmed on Twitter that the company was confident about the Neuralink device, saying that it was ready to be tested on humans.


"We are now confident that the Neuralink device is ready for humans, so timing is a function of working through the FDA-approval process," the new Twitter CEO posted, after addressing a company event.
The company has been conducting several tests on animals while it awaits approval from the U.S. regulatory to begin clinical trials on people.

"We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human but we've submitted I think most of our paperwork to the FDA and we think probably in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a human," Musk said during the announcement, as quoted by Reuters.

Another task on the agenda for the Neuralink device is to enable movement of muscles in people who do not have the control over it or have trouble.

"Even if someone has never had vision, ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision," Musk.

Musk, who is also trying to move people to Mars, wants to create a chip to help the brain control different electronic devices and eventually allow people with paralysis to regain motor function. The brain chip by Neauralink also aims to treat brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Apart from this, Musk also has plans of melding the brain with artificial intelligence.