Elon Musk's ambition to merge humans with AI

Elon Musk is currently implanting brain-computer interface chips to assist paralyzed people, but his long-term goal is to merge humans with AI.
"The implant acts as a means of enhancing your own brain, giving humans the option of symbiosis with artificial intelligence," Elon Musk said at Neuralink's event in July 2019. "The idea here is to create a suitable future that minimizes the existential threat of AI."

According to VOX, this is an important statement by the American billionaire, showing that he co-founded Neuralink not only to support patients who are paralyzed or unable to move, but wants Neuralink to do something bigger.

"Musk is very adept at building a reputation for the company, but also creating extraordinary things that not everyone can do," said Anne Vanhoestenberghe, professor of active implantable medical devices at King's College London. , told the Telegraph.

Elon Musk's vision
Neuralink was co-founded by Musk in 2016 with 7 other members. At some events, he mainly emphasized his ambition to merge humans with machines. "Over time, I think we will probably see closer integration between biological intelligence and digital intelligence," he said at the World Government Summit in February 2017 in Dubai. "It's mainly about bandwidth, the connection speed between your brain and the digital version of yourself, especially the output."

Musk then envisioned a brain-computer interface that could communicate at a speed of "one trillion bits per second". Meanwhile, humans are limited by communication methods such as speaking or signing at 10 bits per second. "Some high-bandwidth interface to the brain will be what helps achieve symbiosis between human and machine intelligence, and can solve the problem of AI control," Musk told CNBC in 2017

The world's first recognized person to have a machine implanted in his brain was Neil Harbisson, when he accepted an antenna inserted into his skull in 2004. This system sends signals such as electromagnetic radiation, phone calls, and videos. or the image is converted into audible vibrations. The wifi-enabled antenna also helps Harbisson receive signals and data from satellites. Musk did not mention Harbisson, but according to Dezeen, the billionaire's statements show that he wants to do bigger things and Neuralink was born to realize that ambition.

What does Neuralink's brain chip have?

According to information on Neuralink's website, the brain-computer chip system is distributed over 96 fiber groups, each group can contain up to 3,072 electrodes. Each strand is less than 1/10 the size of a hair and contains 192 electrodes. Each group of electrodes is encased in a small implant containing a custom wireless chip, measuring 4 x 4 mm. The fibers are inserted individually into the brain "with micron precision" using a small needle at the tip of the robot, 24 microns in diameter


According to Ashlee Vance, author of Musk's first biography in 2015, Neuralink's ultra-thin chip division is currently reduced to about 64 fiber groups. The fibers are so thin that they are only 1/14 the width of a human hair. When attaching a brain chip, the doctor needs a few hours to perform the craniectomy, then it takes 25 minutes for the robot to insert the device. The implant works by recording information emitted from nerve cells in the brain. The brain's nerve cells connect to form a large network through synapses. At these connection points, nerve cells communicate with each other via chemical signals called neurotransmitters, which are released in response to an electrical impulse called an "action potential."

When a cell receives enough of the right neurotransmitter, a chain reaction is triggered that causes an "action potential" as neurons relay messages to synapses. These potentials then create an electric field that propagates from the neuron and can be detected by placing electrodes nearby, allowing the information represented by the neuron to be recorded. At Neuralink's 2019 event, Musk said up to 10 implants could be placed in one hemisphere of the brain.

Recently, Neuralink has been looking for volunteers. On September 19, 2023, the company was allowed to test implanting chips in paralyzed people. According to Vance, thousands of people have signed up to participate in the trial. The company then selected a person to have a brain chip implanted at the end of January. Musk said the patient is now progressing well and can move the computer mouse around the screen through thought.

Allows control of phones, computers and almost any device just by thinking," Musk wrote on X last month. "Initial users will be people who have lost the ability to use their limbs. Imagine Stephen Hawking being able to communicate faster than a typist. That's the goal

Why does Musk want to merge the brain with AI?

According to VOX, Neuralink is the answer to a big fear: AI will dominate the world. This anxiety is increasingly widespread with the prospect that intelligent machines will be able to deceive humans and gain control of the world. Last March, thousands of people, including Musk, also signed a letter calling for a halt to the development of AI systems more powerful than OpenAI's GPT-4 for at least six months. Musk is not the only one giving warnings about AI, but experts assess that the American billionaire is also taking specific actions to avoid risks. His basic plan was: If you can't beat the AI, join them.

In fact, in Musk's view, a key part is AI's ability to think and communicate at speed. Musk is said to still be obsessed with the concept of bandwidth - the speed at which computers can read information from the human brain. This is also the idea that made him accelerate the research progress of Neuralink. Neuralink's original implant was introduced with 1,024 electrodes, and now there are thousands of electrodes. According to Independent, the more electrodes there are, the more neurons the system "listens" to, thereby receiving more data. This is also what Musk aims to do in improving brain-computer data speed.

According to Hirobumi Watanabe, who headed Neuralink's endovascular research team in 2018, the company's obsession is maximizing bandwidth. "Neuralink's goal is to create more electrodes, more bandwidth, so that this interface can do more than what other technologies can do," Watanabe told VOX.

Watanabe also said Neuralink's ambition to seamlessly merge with machines could allow humans to do everything and the ability to remember forever. "That creates the company's dual mission: to create universal brain-computer interfaces to restore autonomy to sick people today and unleash human potential tomorrow."