Neuralink Update – October 2024

hey there welcome to neurod a channel covering all topics related to Elon musk's brain interface company [Music] neuralink my name is Ryan Tanaka and in this update episode I'm going to share the following nurlink got a breakthrough device designation from the FDA for their second product blindsight which will help blind people see I'll share how that product will work and what it means for nuring to get this designated I'll highlight elon's posts on X that are specifically related to neuralink and then I'll showcase some work from this group at UC Davis who accurately converted attempted

speech or thoughts to text with nearly 98% accuracy after that I'll share some noteworthy things nerling first participant Nolan has shared including messages that provide inspiration and hope to many I'll fill you in on all the context we have about the second participant and lastly I'll discuss something I'm calling the Apple problem it specifically relates to the lack of new features on the iPhone which could be a problem neuralink will solve indirectly in the future according to the World Health Organization there are around 50 million people in the world who are blind and with nerling

second product blindsight the team has surpassed their first major milestone in helping these people more fully experience the world nerling broke the news on X saying we have received breakthrough device designation from the FDA for for blindsight I'm going to share what this means but first listen to this clip from the nerling team member spearheading this effort Dan Adams explaining how this product will work my name is Dan and I came to work at neuralink after following a career in visual Neuroscience research I was inspired to join this company because I saw in our device

the potential to restore Vision to people rendered Blind by eye injury or disease this is a schematic of what a visual prosthesis using our n device might N1 device might look like a camera the output from the camera would be processed by an iPhone for example which would then stream the data to the device and the image would be converted into a pattern of stimulation of the electrodes into visual cortex with a thousand electrodes we might be able to produce an image resembling something that you see there on the right but as aanes told you

our next gener ation of the device will have 16,000 electrodes if you put a device on both sides of your visual cortex that would give you 32,000 points of light to make an image in someone who's blind our goal will be to turn the lights on for someone who's spent decades living in the dark I personally find this incredibly inspiring truly consider how gamechanging this could be for you or a love one if you lost your vision and potentially had no hope of ever being able to see again if you simply had the prospect of

seeing again and knew that Elon and the Fantastic nerling Team were working their hardest to try and help you that would give you hope and a more positive outlook on life if and when they're successful in getting this product out to the masses how much of a great impact will it have on not only millions of individuals but also their families and friends now regarding the design there's a bunch of formal language on the FDA website but in plain English this breakthrough device designation will enable nurlink to get feedback from the FDA more quickly get

earlier review of their submission and just speed up the overall process of getting to human trials for reference around 150 breakthrough device designations were granted in 2023 three of elon's most recent Poston X about nurlink include this one from the other day where he elaborated on nurl Link's blindsight product the Blindside device from nurlink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see provided the visual cortex is intact it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time to set expectations correctly the

vision will at first be low resolution like Atari Graphics but eventually it has the potential to be better than natural vision and enable you to see an infrared ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths like Jordy laforge much appreci appreciated us FDA this is a reminder that neuralink is first going to help people with neurological disabilities and then eventually enable almost any sci-fi superpower you can imagine whether it's telepathy quasi teleportation seeing an infrared you'll be able to do all sorts of ridiculous superhuman things that were once considered impossible another post Elon had on X is this

one where he said at some point having a neuralink will be normal sure people right now may think surgically implanting a brain chip is entirely off limits however over time people will start to know a close family member or friend who gets one and they'll inevitably be a little more comfortable and okay with the idea of Uncle e poking around okay well admittedly it's understandable to be a little concerned the brain is a critical organ arguably the most important organ in our bodies so it's logical you'd want to carefully weigh the risk reward ratio of

undergoing the surgery this ratio is very different however for someone with a debilitating brain or spine condition so during the next decade or so healthy people will just need to wait while the technology matures and then once we're able to get these devices I completely agree with Elon having a neuralink and implanted brain computer interface will be normal heck the next generation of kids will grow up with Nur Lings being commonplace and whether you like it or not this future is coming so prepare accordingly also I know it's a gray area but please go ahead

and write in the comment section when you think having a neuralink will be normal another post from Elon was his guess as to what's achievable for Nur Link's rate of implantation he says over 1,000 is achievable in 2026 given that neuralink is likely going to implant in a handful more participants this year they'd have to ramp up quite quickly to hit that but if any team can do it I believe it's this one now let's move on to a breakthrough development from this group at University of California at Davis where the department of neurological surgery

implanted four Utah arrays into speech motor cortex the result is that they successfully converted attempted speech or thoughts to text with nearly 98% accuracy this is a remarkable achievement and what's even more remarkable is if you consider the possibilities of what could be achieved down the road these four Utah arrays each having 64 channels so 256 channels of neural data and meanwhile neuralink is currently working on devices that will have 16,000 channels and eventually millions of channels as you probably know by now the first nerling participant Nolan arbaugh is a young man with a fantastic

attitude but as you can imagine after suffering a major setback he no longer had the freedom to roam as he once did this is some of what he shared in a recent post on X since becoming the first participant at nurlink I've realized there's so much more opportunity in the world for me than I would have ever previously imagined I used to have such Wonder lust I was someone whose life was determined by the direction of the wind going wherever my feet would take me I love to travel and experience everything nothing was off limits

after my accident I thought that part of me was dead forever thank God that wasn't the case I hope to travel much more and go everywhere I wanted to before my injury Nolan also had this to say when he talked to the nerling team at the offices in Fremont California everyone that I've met has just been so impressive like so amazing and y'all are so accommodating to me and my family like every step of the way it's just been it's been amazing you should be very proud of like what you've built here and the people

that y'all have chosen to have around it's just like y'all are among some of the greatest people I've ever met in my life and like that shouldn't be just kind of glossed over I guess y'all are really incredible um so thank you for everything he ended with sharing this message of inspiration and hope um not needing any help from anyone not needing to be adjusted not needing um to ask you know my parents or my brother to get up in the middle of the night and come you know help me out being able to play

it past the time they went to bed it's lifechanging it really is it makes it makes being it's going to sound kind of crazy but it makes being paralyzed really not that bad I think I have a really easy life I just lie around and people do things for me um which is you know pretty nice you know anything that makes me more independent I'm all four and this is probably going to make people like me the most independent that they might ever be until it all gets cured like just thinking about someone say breaking

their neck going into a hospital and 2 days later like getting surgery getting an implant Something 2 Days Later walking out it's such a real possibility now it makes me like so happy that other people don't have to go through this it's everything I could have ever asked for and to be a part of it and to be helping in some way to be able to be useful in some way it completely changed how I live and since I started doing all this I'm in bed by like 910 p.m. I'm waking up at like 67

in the morning just excited for the next day and that's something that I never thought would happen to me ever again so y'all have given me like a purpose and it's outside of everything else that I've been able to do it's more than I could ever ask for so thank you guys thank you so much having freedom and purpose and the ability to use your brain and or body is literally like the nerling team giving folks a second shot at life P2 named Alex or nerling second participant in this human trial used to work as

an automotive technician Alex wanted to play video games and fully use a computer but the assistive quad stick could only help so much in order to really feel digital Freedom the neuralink was needed now according to a blog post from nurlink he's able to play video games like Counterstrike this is a big improvement from using the quad stick as he's now able to move while simultaneously pointing and shooting at targets rather than doing each task individually you can imagine how much more burdensome and less effective this approach would be Alex is also now able to

use CAD software to design new products for example he designed a custom mount for his own nurlink charger the blog post also highlights two other key elements of this implant the first is that the nurlink could be used out of the box that is Alex connected the nurlink to his computer and was able to start using it within 5 minutes this is a key difference from other prior devices that most in the industry would use as a comparison prior devices are more bulky not WI less and less easy to set up and the other highlight

from this implantation is that the team has observed no thread retraction in the second participant this rapid improvement from the initial concern from the first participant is a testament to the hard work and the care of the neuralink team ooh the newest iPhone just came out well it's pretty much the same as the last phone feature development on phones has stalled for over the past few years and even decade and whether or not this is an apple specific problem it's time for us humans to consider what future we want to be a part of what's

the next Generation Computing device meta Google and these other Tech Titans are wanting virtual reality or VR and augmented reality AR devices to take off but will they I have a feeling Google Glass didn't flop because it was a bad product it flopped because it was a wrong product which is the same issue meta's Oculus product and Apple's Vision Pro product are having these devices aren't practical no one wants to be isolated behind a screen that's strapped to their face also no other humans want to be around to anyone with a permanent recording device eyeing

them at the dinner table Odd as it may sound to some of you people will be more willing to get surgically implanted brain chips then wear a cell phone strapped to their face for 12 hours a day and who's building those surgically implanted brain machine interfaces Elon Musk and the team at nurlink are the only ones who have the courage to tackle the ridiculously challenging engineering problems required to advance this technology there's simply too much liability and negative social pressure from Mark Zuckerberg to build a competitor there's too much legal pressure and pressure from investors

for the team at Apple to even consider a project like this so the Apple problem well by the time the nurl links are commonplace it's going to be way too late for these current Tech Giants to catch up you and I and everyone else will be interacting AC ING with AI will be full cyborgs with our Nur links and Tim Apple will have flatlined or dividend the company away the problem of flatlining innovation sure that's an apple problem but the problem of not recognizing that nural links are going to be the way everyone interfaces with

their digital devices well that's something only nurlink seems to recognize at the moment that's a problem for everyone else if you know anyone who lives in the US UK or Canada and might benefit from these amazing products have them apply to the patient registry at www.link.com slaent registry or if this work sounds inspiring to you consider joining the nerling team the company currently has a little under 500 employees and wouldn't it be sweet to join during a time you could substantially contribute in helping blind people see paralyzed people walk or deaf people here please subscribe

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