It's unclear what caused the retraction or how many threads have become displaced.

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.

  • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    82·
    6 months ago

    And they already killed how many monkeys testing this stuff? Last I heard was that they tested 15 monkeys or so, and 13 of them ended up dying or having to be euthanized after only a few months.

    They already admitted they had problems with their brain electrodes corroding after a few months or so…

    I like to keep my noodle intact thank you very much. Even if I was a vegetable, I wouldn’t want a chip in my head that’s known to have corroding wires.

    • vrek@programming.devEnglish
      131·
      6 months ago

      See the corroding part scares me. Actual electrodes planted in the brain should never corrode. The company I work for actually makes brain implants(no, not nueralink) so I know it’s possible.

      That stuff is EXPENSIVE though … So he must of cheaped out with a cheaper metal and that’s why it corroded.

      • over_clox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        6 months ago

        Indeed. Hell, I’m no expert in the field, but haven’t they had reliable Parkinson’s brain implant devices for decades?

      • philycheeze@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        Well that’s the main issue isn’t it? It’s not that the idea is bad, it’s all the cut corners on safety and quality. Same reason I won’t be getting into one of Elons cars or rockets.

      • JJROKCZ@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        I hope he chose to cheap on monkeys because they’re viewed as expendable in the eyes of many, and hope he actually used the good stuff on people.

        He’s the type of psycho to say no to expensive implants on the monkeys because they’re “just monkeys”