More Neuralink human trials in the cards as Elon Musk teases Optimus robot mind control

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk took to his favorite free speech platform X to give a lengthy status update on the Neuralink brain–computer interface implant human trials.

Yes, trials, since Elon announced that Neralink's patient zero Noland Arbaugh will be joined by another implant patient this week. Musk also hopes to sign a "high single digits" number of Neuralink human study testers by the end of the year.

In the lengthy video interview where he is flanked by the Neuralink team, Elon also dished out some futuristic predictions over the direction where the Neuralink project may be heading.

Some of those were health related, including claims that amputees with Neuralink implants will be able to move their prosthetic limbs faster than they could do it before. With his typical optimism, Elon thinks that Neuralink will also one day help treat epilepsy or cure paralysis, which he admitted is a "tough," but "ultimately solvable" problem to tackle.

Neuralink's patient zero had initial problems with the implant, whose electrodes retracted from their brain, but the team compensated by improving the algorithms, and Noland even set an 8 bits-per-second (BPS) speed record for controlling a cursor with his mind.

In one of the wilder Elon predictions, he is now of the opinion that this same mind control could one day allow Neuralink implant wearers to task a Tesla Optimus robot with various chores around the house, too.

Needless to say, this all depends on more Neuralink human trials and better surgery outcomes that will eschew the electrode retraction that happened with Mr. Noland.

The team has already developed techniques that will form the skull better and zap the air pockets left during surgery, as well as insert the electrodes deeper into the patient's brain to prevent retraction while healing.

In addition, the researchers are working on the next Neuralink implant generation that doubles the bandwidth of the existing unit, potentially allowing for even faster BPS reactions, and more complex mind control tasks.

Get the PlayStation VR2 headset on Amazon