Neuralink, the secret starting neurology co-founded by Elon Musk, it was even quieter than usual these days. That is, until this week when it was released a YouTube video clip of a monkey that appears to play the classic video game Pong with her mind.
The video features Pager, a 9-year-old macaque monkey who had a Neuralink implanted on both sides of his brain about six weeks earlier, according to the narrator. And he seems to love Pong.
Before learning how to play the game with the mind, however, the researchers first conditioned him to use a joystick, rewarding him with a “tasty banana smoothie” with a straw whenever he moved a cursor on the screen. on certain illuminated squares on a grid.
As he maneuvered the joystick and happily unwrapped it, Neuralink’s brain devices recorded his brain activity, monitoring more than 2,000 electrodes implanted in the region of Pager’s motor cortex that controls hand and arm movements. Researchers could interact with devices in real time by pairing their phones via Bluetooth.
Neuralink data was then entered into a “decoding algorithm” to prepare them to predict the intentional movements of Pager’s hands in real time, based on which the neurons were firing. After a short calibration period, the decoder understood Pager’s neural patterns well enough that the joystick was no longer needed. The narrator says that, even disconnected, Pager continues to move the cursor using only his mind. Then he seems to play a so-called game MindPong no joystick in sight.
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“A monkey literally plays a telepathic video game using a brain chip !!” Said Musk a tweet video sharing on Thursday.
Over four million people have watched it since then and it is currently among the top 10 trendy videos on YouTube. If you are interested, Neuralink has also distributed a video clip showing what the raw data behind Pager’s neural activity looks like while he’s busy playing.
Musk continued to discuss future plans for Neuralink devices the series of tweets, repeating the narrator of the video that the ultimate goal of this technology is to allow people with paralysis to operate their computer or phone through their minds.
Initial versions of the device “will allow a paralyzed person to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone who uses their thumbs,” Musk wrote. “Later versions will be able to roll signals from Neuralinks in the brain to Neuralinks in groups of motor / sensory neurons in the body, allowing, for example, paraplegics to walk again.
In August, however, Neuralink showed a live demonstration of the Neuralink implant in action on pigs rather than monkeys.
“It’s like a small-skinned Fitbit,” Musk said at the time.
Musk are proput a lot of science fiction for Neuralink research since the company’s launch in 2017. These have ranged from more practical examples, such as treating brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and depression, and the mobility assistance mentioned above for the paralyzed, to the fantastic, i.e. stimulating our human brain functions, so we can happily coexist with our eventual AI masters.
Before any of this can happen, however, Neuralink will have to jump through a series of regulatory circles if it ever wants a chance to become an approved medical device for human use. In July, Musk announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had designated Neuralink a “Discovery device” a statute that should quickly follow its federal review process. As much as possible, at least, given the government’s glacial pace for these kinds of things. It could be years or even decades before we see significant legal progress.
In the meantime, maybe Neuralink can teach Pager to play a few more mind games. I think I’m missing out on a huge opportunity if the next one isn’t something from the Donkey Kong series. Or even better: Ape Escape.