Elon Musk is planting computer chips in brains – where do I sign up?

Would you trust Elon Musk to put a chip in your brain?

It might be something to consider, given that one of his startups – Neuralink – has reportedly done exactly that.

If you think it sounds like the plot for a cyberpunk novel – something William Gibson would dream up for Hollywood, say, with Keanu Reeves in the starring role – you’re not alone. The real chip’s purpose, however (unlike Johnny Mnemonic, the 1995 movie about a data courier with an overloading brain implant) is medical. Musk took to his platform X, formerly Twitter, to report that the first person to take part in the study was “recovering well” and that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection”.

Musk’s system, which is called “Telepathy”, is designed to help deal with complex neurological conditions – such as enabling people with quadriplegia to “control external devices with their thoughts”.

If it works – and I should stress that there has been no independent verification of Musk’s claims – would you do it? I know I would. It’s a bit like asking if you’d agree to eat delicious, calorie-free cookies, every morning. And yes, I can imagine the small print: “If you wish to use your Neuralink device you must first accept our tracking technology... click yes to agree...”

I jest. But is Neuralink technology really so very far away?

The potential positives are enticing enough to those of us who might benefit from them. They might even be enticing enough that we would be willing to set aside our (very real) objections. The potential positives are huge.

And while the “chip in a brain” idea might sound slightly dystopian, I’m living proof that medical tech really does have the potential to transform lives. In fact, I’m sitting here writing with an electrode on the underside of my left arm. I’m a type 1 diabetic, you see – an autoimmune condition which means my body has been unable to make its own insulin since I was just two years old. The electrode feeds my blood sugar level back to my mobile phone. It screeches at me if my levels are going too high or (more dangerous) too low, so I can adjust it when necessary. It did that in the middle of a cinema once, before I realised I could turn the alarms off. Highly embarrassing.

The impact on my day-to-day life, however, has been dramatic. My average blood sugar level is now not far off that of a normal person. For the vast majority of the time, it lives in the normal range. I’m currently also contemplating having another electrode placed in my spine to deal with the agonising neuropathic pain I suffer from – the legacy of being run over by a truck. Peripheral nerves can heal, but mine did not – and I’ve exhausted the surgical options for fixing the damage. At least for now. But in the future?

Still, it’s not all plain sailing with Musk, as you might expect. He’s no straightforward cyberpunk saviour – and his brain chip has inevitably been the cause of controversy already. In 2022, Neuralink was under federal investigation in the US “for potential animal-welfare violations”, amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing was being “rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths”.

The head of the agency responsible for animal welfare subsequently told Congress that it did not find any violations of animal research rules beyond a 2019 incident. However, at the end of last year, a group of Democrat congressmen asked America’s Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Musk had committed securities fraud by allegedly misleading investors about the safety of the brain implant.

It should also be noted that there are other companies and organisations working in this field. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne has, for example, successfully enabled a paralysed man to walk just by thinking.

It’s not so much the tech that is a concern but the involvement of Musk and people like him. It sometimes seems that he just can’t help himself. Wherever there is a boundary, you can almost guarantee that he’ll find a way to push against it. His “f*** you” attitude could become a cause of real concern, because of the risks involved with any new tech. One of those risks is clearly the profit motive. It provides the fuel for innovation, true – but also for the cutting of corners and (potentially) for scandal.

Still, we are entering a brave new world. Medical tech is transforming lives and it could go much further. I’m already one of the beneficiaries. It isn’t the brain chip, per se, that I’d be resistant to. It’s a brain chip made by Musk...