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.
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.
Because that’s what people are worried about: THE LOST DATA.
When a computer reads some signal, the 0s and 1s in it’s memory is the data. The data must be processed so that the computer can understand it.
This computer is using threads to read neuron activity. It must necessarily receive data because if it didn’t it wouldn’t be reading neuron activity. They’re the same thing.
This data is processed so that the computer can make sense of the brain. Once it understands some activity it generates signals that can control external devices.
Here’s an example. Imagine a device that monitors the heart and does something to fix a problem. The device would get data on the heart and process the data so that it can perform it’s function.
Wouldn’t monitoring health concerns and mitigating data loss be extremely important in these scenarios?
The point is that this is the opening paragraph about something going wrong in human brain surgery, and the first thing they tell us is “don’t worry, the data’s fine”, rather than anything about the human. Indeed, you have to read to the last paragraph to find:
Arbaugh’s safety does not appear to be negatively impacted.
and the first thing they tell us is “don’t worry, the data’s fine”, rather than anything about the human.
I do agree it would have been significantly more considerate to mention that the person is ok first, but I feel like you’re confusing data storage (ie something they’re collecting) with data processing (ie how the device operates). The data in question is the latter. In other words, they are explaining that the problems are being accounted for so that the device can still function in the human it’s attached to.
No, I understood that, I did read the article. I’m lambasting the fact that in an article about “brain chip gone wrong”, burying the “but human seems to be unharmed” at the end of an article is indicative of a set of priorities wildly different from my own.
Can you imagine the marketing value?
TY! My first thought was he was this poor sweet guy who just wanted to play Civ and fell for this grifter
Betcha he took a shower and forgot to put it in shower mode.
DO NOT WASH YOUR BRAIN IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT
Of fuck, you just reminded me of that commercial. HEAD ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD! HEAD ON! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD!
Thanks Obama!
Have they tried firing most of the neurons, keeping only the most hardcore?
I can’t believe anyone willingly got this after the monkey testing thing. They have to be taking advantage of people not fit to make decisions for themselves.
The patient became quadriplegia in a car accident, I wouldn’t call it unfit for decisions but definitely someone desperate to find a sense of normalcy.
Wait, is that what these brain chips are for? Well now I can’t hate on them as much as I used to if they’re meant to help people learn how to walk again. I thought it was just supposed to help you process thoughts more quickly or something, like a math coprocessor in an old 90s PC.
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Guy has nothing left to lose really, I don’t blame him for taking this risk considering I would strongly consider it myself were I in his situation
The only thing he could lose is only a few important brain functions, if something truly does go wrong. Nothing major. /s
I mean, in that position I’d probably be willing to gamble with my life. Not with Musk involved, but if there was a similar opportunity without his involvement. It would be an honorable death, too, as long as it didn’t result in a halt on the research.
If I could fully trust the ones doing it, there is a certain % of death risk I’d be willing to take as a healthy person once the tech is more mature. The possibilities of such technology are endless, especially as the tech becomes more interactive rather than just observing and acting on those observations. I’m not sure if I’d want to live in the Matrix, but I’d love to at least visit it or play VR games based on that tech. Altered Carbon would be interesting, too.
Sure, the possibilities are endless, so the first thing we’ll get that has any research money and effort put into it is how to turn it into an advertising platform and then maximally enshittifying it as soon as there’s a market share to speak of.
Yeah, that “if I could trust it” is pulling a lot of weight there. Like I decline fucking website cookies. Tech like that has way more invasive potential. Maybe they wouldn’t even need to advertise and could directly make you just buy things or give them free labour. You’d just need a module to make a person act like a normal happy person and then with that could potentially do anything “under the hood” without being detected. The possibilities are endless in the dystopian direction, too. Realistically, “if I could trust it” isn’t a requirement that can be met.
Oh, they’d never do anything as sinister as that. That may still be illegal (if the ultra-rich lobbying hasn’t taken care of that obstacle by that point).
Instead, they’ll just make sure that whatever essential core service they’ve built a monopoly in by just muscling the poorer competitors out of the race will cease to be offered to you if you refuse to hand all your money over to them.
See also: insulin, hospital treatment, etc. This is just a new playing field to find old prey in.
Not many options I guess. Sucks to have to gamble on the crazy billionaire with a lot of faulty shit.
I thought the goal was to reconnect the brain to the spinal cord though.
But dude is still stuck in a wheelchair, and so far it’s basically been just a fancy experimental mouse cursor? Installed in his brain? And already failing?..
Watching his videos he’s a clever snd self aware guy more than capable of thinking for himself. Hate Elon but you don’t need to shit on the disabled by acting like being in a wheelchair means you can’t think for yourself
You totally missed my point. I wasn’t shitting on the disabled fella at all. I was 100% shitting on the Neuralink chip, which is supposedly being developed and promoted as a way of fixing paralysis.
The fact that the man is still in a wheelchair means that Neuralink has achieved 0% of it’s ultimate intended goal. It’s just a fancy mouse cursor (and probably keyboard) so far.
I don’t really keep up with Elon moon shits, but I think the idea is to substitute the brains neurological commands. Research is still on the “read” stage, like knowing what information the brain is requesting. Eventually neurolink will also need to discover how to relay those signals back to the nervous system in a way it understands, engaging muscles and such, effectively rebuilding the bridge that was damaged. Or robot legs or whatever, but the key is first getting the information into a format they can act on. But I’m not smart, this is just how I understood it.
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.
I don’t know which company I would trust developing my brain implant, but it sure as hell isn’t Tesla. Their software and hardware history is less than stellar.
I mean it’s too early to trust anyone with this new technology
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Through consent. The guy probably either has terminal illness and is happy to contribute to research or is completely paralysed, that an operation like this could benefit both parties.
It’s an agreement and I’m sure the risks are expressed to the individual.
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