It looks like Elon Musk is ready to go full mad scientist.
On Wednesday, Musk shared his team at Neuralink is planning on testing its brain implant in people soon. The company has asked U.S. regulators to allow them to test their device on humans, and Musk believes Neuralink should be able to put the implant in a human brain as part of a clinical trial in roughly six months.
Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking human minds to computers as a way to treat brain disorders, overcome brain injuries and more. The device is about the size of a large coin and will be implanted in the skull with ultra-thin wires going directly into the brain.
Musk said the first two applications in people would be restoring vision and helping people with little to no ability of operating their muscles using the digital device. Eventually, he shared, the device could even help someone with a broken spine by bridging the Neuralink device with the spinal cord.
“We’re confident there are no physical limitations to enabling full body functionality,” Musk said.
