Elon Musk decided to follow Bill Gates’ initiative in developing brain microchips. Musk’s Neuralink is working on brain implants. He compared the technology to a “FitBit in your skull.” Neuralink is preparing two projects. The first one represents a coin-sized microchip. The device is implanted in a human skull using numerous threads. Each thread is 20 times thinner than the human hair. These threads are carrying electrodes for monitoring and stimulating brain activity. The second project is a surgical robot which can implant the microchip by piercing the flexible wires of the Neuralink chip and drilling it into the skull. The operation resembles the work of a sewing machine. "In terms of their technology, 1,024 channels is not that impressive these days, but the electronics to relay them wirelessly is state-of-the-art, and the robotic implantation is nice. This is solid engineering but mediocre neuroscience. Even if the technology doesn't do anything more than we're able to do at the moment — in terms of number of channels or whatever — just from a welfare aspect for the animals, I think if you can do experiments with something that doesn't involve wires coming through the skin, that's going to improve the welfare of animals," Professor Andrew Jackson, an expert in neural interfaces, commented on Musk’s project.
