Ilon Musk's Neuralink — A complete symbiosis of human and artificial intelligence

On Tuesday, July 16, the presentation of one of IT prophet Elon Musk's ambitious projects took place — Neuralink, the direct interface between the human brain and the computer. At first glance, Musk draws his unimaginable ideas straight from sci-fi bestsellers, but he has proven more than once that his projects work, and this one is probably no exception.

Neuralink's mission

Elon sees Neuralink's mission as the full symbiosis of humans and artificial intelligence. “With this advanced brain — The computer interface has allowed us to go on a collaborative journey fully united with artificial intelligence”

How Neuralink works

We have about 100 billion cells in our brains called neurons. They form a giant network, constantly interacting with each other. Through this network, they exchange signals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are triggered in response to an electrical impulse called an action potential. When a nerve cell gets enough neurotransmitters it sets off a chain reaction of action potentials down the synapses. These electrical impulses of action potentials produce an electromagnetic field that can be read by an electrode placed near the neuron.

Neuralink's goal — Read and selectively stimulate electrical impulses of action potentials in as many neurons in all parts of the brain as possible.

The thickness of the electrode that is placed in the brain to read impulses — About 1/10th of the thickness of a hair. This is about the same size as a neuron. The electrode implantation procedure is performed by a robot. This reduces the trauma of surgery and the risks of damaging blood vessels

Here is what the robot looks like. It's a sophisticated mechanism that gently and accurately places electrodes with minimal risk and trauma

In this picture on the left, you can see the size of the robot head compared to a small coin. The picture on the right shows the tiny needle, which is about 24 microns in size.

Elon Musk announced at the presentation that the main goal of this very presentation — Search and recruitment for the project. The need for professionals of the highest level is determined by the constant increase in the complexity of the tasks that face the Neuralink team. So if you can handle this level of challenge, you may be the one to be part of the greatest breakthrough in computer-human interfaces that the world has ever seen.