Neuralink: Redefining Humanity or Playing With Fire?

Last April, Elon Musk warned us about the anonymous threats of Artificial Intelligence to civilization. Little did we realize at the time that he was warning us about himself. 

The start-up Neuralink, founded by Musk, has created a brain-chip implant that records and transmits brain activity with the goal of enabling human brains to telepathically control computers. Yet, considering the company’s lack of transparency in the creation of this brain-computer interface, Neuralink planting electrodes into people’s brains under the facade of redefining the boundaries of human capability raises numerous moral concerns about the future of technology and humanity. 

In May of 2023, Neuralink received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for human clinical trials. Elon Musk then announced the company’s first human trial on his social media platform, X, in January of 2024. Information about the implant, however, is scarce, aside from a brochure aimed at recruiting trial subjects. Neuralink also did not register at ClinicalTrials.gov, which tends to be customary and required by academic journals for clinical trials. 

This past March, 29-year-old Nolan Arbaugh played a game of chess on his computer using his mind, and no, he is not superhuman. Arbaugh sustained a spinal cord injury in a diving accident eight years ago while working as a summer camp counselor for children, which left him quadriplegic in 2016. He is the first person to have a Neuralink cybernetic implant, and he may not deliver a checkmate at the end of the clinical trial. 

The start-up company recruited individuals from the United States for their first–in-human clinical trial, with Arbaugh being one of the spearheaders. Arbaugh says it is "not perfect and they have run into some issues, but it has already changed [his] life". After the Neuralink procedure in January 2024, he was released from the hospital a day later with no cognitive impairments, and is a part of Neauralink’s PRIME Study, which is short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface. 

The investigational medical device clinical trial, as defined by Neuralink themselves, is for a fully-implantable, wireless brain-computer interface aimed to evaluate the safety of their implant (N1), surgical robot (R1), and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for people with quadriplegia to control external devices with their thoughts.

Neuralink’s current trial is focused on helping people with paralyzed limbs control computers or smartphones. Brain-computer interfaces, commonly called BCIs, can also be used to control devices such as wheelchairs. Kip Ludwig, former program director for neural engineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said what Neuralink showed was not a "breakthrough." There are other brain-computer devices, like Neuralink, that are fully implanted and wireless. However, the N1 implant combines more technologies in a single device: it can target individual neurons, record from thousands of sites in the brain, and recharge its small battery wirelessly. These are advances that set it apart from its competitors. 

Members of the Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank, have cautioned against Musk's brand of “science by press release, while increasingly common, is not science.” When scientific research is funded by government agencies or philanthropic groups, its aim is to promote the public good. Neuralink, on the contrary, embodies a private equity model, which is becoming more common in science. Firms that gather funds from private investors to back science breakthroughs may strive to do good, but they also strive to maximize profits, which can conflict with patients’ best interests.

Despite good intentions, medical interventions may lead to unforeseen outcomes. With BCIs, scientists and ethicists are particularly concerned about the potential for identity theft, password hacking, and blackmail. Given how the devices access users’ thoughts, there is also the possibility that their autonomy could be manipulated by third parties.

For now, Neuralink’s trials are focused on patients with paralysis. But, Musk has said his ultimate goal for BCIs, however, is to help humanity—including healthy people—“keep pace” with artificial intelligence. The company still has to prove that its system can work in human brains, and that the threads, once implanted, can survive in our brains for years without deteriorating, or causing our brains themselves to deteriorate. Else, the only thing delivering checkmates at the end of the day will be technology to itself.