Neuralink is undoubtedly one of Elon Musk’s companies What has generated the most controversy? in recent years. His goal is, according to the billionaire’s own words, to make the blind see again, so that paraplegics can walk again, and turn human beings into cyborgs so that they can overcome the limitations inherent to their own condition, that is, to his own humanity.
It is approached as a medical company, and it is normal because they carry out bio-implants, but these have raised many questions, and in fact their experiments with monkeys have given rise to numerous accusations of animal abuse. In the midst of all this controversy is one of the most important key points for Elon Musk’s company, be able to test in humans.
Reuters has published an extensive and interesting article on this subject, where they have analyzed its most important keys, and have also discussed the resounding rejection given by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) at Neuralink’s request to start its tests with human beings.
The FDA rejection occurred in 2022, but had been shrouded in significant secrecy by Elon Musk’s firm, and has not been discovered until today. According to the source, when the FDA received the petition, it responded with several dozen problems that Neuralink has to solve completely before being able to reconsider entering the human testing phase, and these mainly include security issues, such as the risks of implanting a lithium-ion battery, the risks of cable migrations to other areas of the brain and other issues related to the possibility of removing implants without damage to brain tissue.
Some topics are so basic that the truth makes me wonder what phase Neuralink is really in, and leads me to question if they are really prepared to face the jump to human trials even in the long term. They have a lot of work to do, and at this point it is important to remember those leaks that said that the monkeys that the company used to test its implants not only died, but also did so with extreme suffering. I don’t think we want to see this in humans.
