Elon Musk is attempting to combat the rise of artificial intelligence with the launch of his latest venture, brain-computer interface company Neuralink.
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In an interview with Wait Buy Why, Musk has revealed some of the details about his latest venture. He has confirmed that he will be the CEO of Neuralink – alongside the Tesla, and SpaceX leadership positions he already holds. Musk explained that the firm's goal is to turn cloud-based AI into an extension of the human brain. The company will aim to create (and bring to market) a product that can help those with severe brain injuries. It's product, which will be developed within the next four years will eventually lead humans to be able to communicate by "consensual telepathy".
This is far from the first time Musk has shown an interest in merging man and machine. At a Tesla launch in Dubai earlier this year, the billionaire spoke about the need for humans to become cyborgs if we are to survive the rise of artificial intelligence. "Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," CNBC reported him as saying at the time. "It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output."
Transhumanism, the enhancement of humanity’s capabilities through science and technology, is already a living reality for many people, to varying degrees. Documentary-maker Rob Spence replaced one of his own eyes with a video camera in 2008; amputees are using prosthetics connected to their own nerves and controlled using electrical signals from the brain; implants are helping tetraplegics regain independence through the BrainGate project. In the February issue of WIRED, former director of the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Arati Prabhakar, wrote: “From my perspective, which embraces a wide swathe of research disciplines, it seems clear that we humans are on a path to a more symbiotic union with our machines.”
So Musk, as with most of his ventures, is tapping into an incredibly timely and topical technology that is already being worked on by researchers across the globe, but in his own unique and business-savvy way. SpaceX was not the first private space company - but it was the first that set out with a plan to create affordable, reusable rockets, before scaling up to Mars missions. With Neuralink, he appears to be doing the same thing - taking on the more seemingly realistic and profitable challenge of symptom control, before venturing into total man-machine brain mergers.
This article was originally published on March 28 and has since been updated with more details
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
