Elon Musk's Neuralink helps monkies play Pong with their minds

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WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Plenty of people in the world have neurological disorders, from brain damage to paralysis, that will benefit from this technology.

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In another breakthrough for Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technology Neuralink, the neuro-technology startup created by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who recently showed off their connected pigs, have now released another video that shows a 9 year old monkey called Pager playing the video game Pong using only its brain.

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The video, which was posted to YouTube, is yet another demonstration of the increasingly powerful technology that Musk hopes will one day help people merge with Artificial Intelligence (AI), and help people with neurological conditions and damage overcome their injuries and regain their lives.

In the experiment Neuralink capsules were placed on each side of Pager’s brain, according to the video, and used to track and record the neural activity of the parts of his brain that focuses on hand and arm movements.

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Once that activity was decoded they were then able to predict the monkey’s hand movements in real time. The monkey is shown playing a game of Pong, purportedly moving the paddle to strike the ball by just thinking where he wants it to go.

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“Our goal is to enable a person with paralysis to use a computer or phone with their brain activity alone,” a narrator says in the video.

Meanwhile Musk lauded the developments with Neuralink on Twitter: “A monkey is literally playing a video game telepathically using a brain chip!!” he said.

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Matthew Griffin

Fanatical Futurist ● Int'l Advisor and Keynote Speaker ● Disruption, Futures and Innovation expert

Matthew Griffin, described as “The Adviser behind the Advisers” and a “Young Kurzweil,” is the founder and CEO of the World Futures Forum and the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures consultancy working between the dates of 2020 to 2070, and is an award winning futurist, and author of “Codex of the Future” series. Regularly featured in the global media, including AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, RT, Viacom, and WIRED, Matthew’s ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of revolutionary emerging technologies on global culture, industry and society, is unparalleled. Recognised for the past six years as one of the world’s foremost futurists, innovation and strategy experts Matthew is an international speaker who helps governments, investors, multi-nationals and regulators around the world envision, build and lead an inclusive, sustainable future. A rare talent Matthew’s recent work includes mentoring Lunar XPrize teams, re-envisioning global education and training with the G20, and helping the world’s largest organisations envision and ideate the future of their products and services, industries, and countries. Matthew's clients include three Prime Ministers and several governments, including the G7, Accenture, Aon, Bain & Co, BCG, Credit Suisse, Dell EMC, Dentons, Deloitte, E&Y, GEMS, Huawei, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Lego, McKinsey, PWC, Qualcomm, SAP, Samsung, Sopra Steria, T-Mobile, and many more.