Musk’s monkeys play mind games for real

25 November 2020 News

As reported by Bloomberg and various other news outlets, Elon Musk stated during a speech on Clubhouse (a private social app where users host off-the-cuff, informal conversations) that one of his startup companies has a monkey with wires going into its brain that’s able to play video games.

“He’s a happy monkey,” said Musk when prompted about the latest developments at San Francisco-based Neuralink, which was unveiled in 2017. “We have a monkey with a wireless implant in their skull with tiny wires who can play video games with his mind,” Musk told several thousand listeners. “You can’t see where the implant is and he’s a happy monkey. We have the nicest monkey facilities in the world. We want them to play mind-Pong with each other.”

Musk explained that the goal with the brain-linking technology is to address brain and spinal injuries and make up for people’s lost capacity with an implanted chip. “There are primitive versions of this device with wires sticking out of your head, but it’s like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires that go into your brain,” Musk said.

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