Elon Musk Says His Start-Up Neuralink Has Wired Up a Monkey To Play Video Games Using Its Mind (cnbc.com) 72
Tesla boss Elon Musk said in an interview late Sunday that a monkey has been wired up to play video games with its mind by a company he founded called Neuralink. CNBC reports: Neuralink put a computer chip into the monkey's skull and used "tiny wires" to connect it to its brain, Musk said. "It's not an unhappy monkey," he said during a talk on Clubhouse, a new social media app gaining popularity that allows people to have informal voice chats while others listen in. "You can't even see where the neural implant was put in, except that he's got a slight like dark mohawk."
The billionaire -- who also spoke about space travel, colonies on Mars, crypto, artificial intelligence and Covid-19 vaccines -- said Neuralink is trying to figure out if it can use its chips to get monkeys to play "mind Pong" with each other. "That would be pretty cool," said Musk, who is CEO of Neuralink, in addition to SpaceX and Tesla. Neuralink's team of around 100 people is trying to develop an implementable computer-brain interface. Musk describes it as a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires that go into your brain. [...] Musk said Neuralink will "probably" be releasing some videos that show the company's progress in the next month or so. Last August, Neuralink conducted a live demo of its technology on three pigs. A wireless link from the Neuralink device showed the pig's activity activity as it snuffled around a pen on stage.
Musk made the comments on the audio chat app Clubhouse, where he also grilled Robinhood CEO about what happened with GameStop.
The billionaire -- who also spoke about space travel, colonies on Mars, crypto, artificial intelligence and Covid-19 vaccines -- said Neuralink is trying to figure out if it can use its chips to get monkeys to play "mind Pong" with each other. "That would be pretty cool," said Musk, who is CEO of Neuralink, in addition to SpaceX and Tesla. Neuralink's team of around 100 people is trying to develop an implementable computer-brain interface. Musk describes it as a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires that go into your brain. [...] Musk said Neuralink will "probably" be releasing some videos that show the company's progress in the next month or so. Last August, Neuralink conducted a live demo of its technology on three pigs. A wireless link from the Neuralink device showed the pig's activity activity as it snuffled around a pen on stage.
Musk made the comments on the audio chat app Clubhouse, where he also grilled Robinhood CEO about what happened with GameStop.
Videogames? (Score:3)
We want a direct droud connection to the pleasure center, my uncle Wu recommended it.
PS.
It will also help with overpopulation.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes! I have been waiting so long for the droud... Plug me in, baby!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Yes, but is the monkey Playstation or Xbox (Score:2)
Frankly if I were to wire up a monkey's mind to play video games on it, I would go for PlayStation.
The secret project not revealed (Score:2)
Re:The secret project not revealed (Score:4, Funny)
I am not a monkey (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
3, Infomative? Really Mods?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Though I have been known to throw poo when angry.
I'd recommend grabbing a seat at the Steve Ballmer School of the Flying Chair.
They'll teach you how to upgrade those outbursts professionally, and with office equipment.
Prior art... (Score:2)
Silicon Valley?
It's not an unhappy monkey (Score:3)
Except it's confined to sterile cage in a research institute and has no control over the operations performed on it.
While I understand the need for primate testing for such a device before doing implant testing in humans, it's disingenuous to say that this monkey isn't unhappy.
Re: (Score:1)
Re:It's not an unhappy monkey (Score:4, Insightful)
Ask any pet owner.
Re: (Score:1)
the ones with animal happily confined to house? Bet a monkey with food and sex and toys is happy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
because most pets are.
Re: (Score:2)
You've never lived with a dog, apparently. Hell, even guinea pigs can demonstrate joy.
Re: (Score:2)
Do any humans other than yourself experience "happy" and "sad"? If so, prove it.
Re: (Score:2)
Can't really explain "happy" to a pseudo-contrarian chatbot troll who cannot.
Re: (Score:2)
Never been owned by a cat, have you? They even get offended.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Except it's confined to sterile cage in a research institute and has no control over the operations performed on it.
\
Just like all those Facebook and Twitter users in their sterilized echo chamber.
Re: (Score:1)
it's disingenuous to say that this monkey isn't unhappy.
I know he's officially the world's richest person and all, but this seems just a little too dastardly: the monkey can't say no.
Boeing/ULA executives, on the other hand, can say no.. and can be ignored.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Do we need primate testing for this thing?
Is this device worth doing this to primates for? Are the benefits worth it?
Is it so risky that we couldn't do it on volunteers?
Deep brain stuff has been tested on primates since the 80s, if we haven't made much progress since then is it okay to keep using primates?
Personally I don't think we should use primates for testing at all, except in very limited circumstances where there is a great medical. Nuralink doesn't seem that important.
Re: (Score:2)
We hadn't made much progress on desirable electric cars until Tesla changed the game. We hadn't made much progress on reusable rockets and getting the cost of space flight down until SpaceX. So the fact that we "haven't made much progress" on "deep brain stuff" does not carry much weight with me. Neuralink is similarly trying to take direct brain interfacing to a whole new level, with orders of magnitude more connections than any previous device, and if they succeed, it could be huge. I guess you don't have
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
So what evidence do you have that these tests on primates are necessary (can't be done any other way) and that the chances of them leading to useful results are high?
Musk has a long line of failed and abandoned ideas, almost as bad as Google. Just because he occasionally gets it right isn't reason enough to put primates through this, especially as a lot of research has already been done in this area and his results so far are not particularly spectacular. We have had primates playing games and completing si
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever considered it's the technology that's being improved instead of the activity?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes.
Yes. Artificial limbs, for instance.
You first, as they say.
First, we have made a lot of progress. You are either ignorant of it or are ignoring it. And unless you've a substitute that is as close to
Re: (Score:2)
Dude's being set up to play virtual Pong! How unhappy could he be?
In all seriousness though, Pong? Couldn't we reach just a *little* bit higher for that first test? Pacman? Donkey Kong? Dig Dug?
Re: (Score:2)
Monkey's probably aren't smart enough for Donkey Kong, Pong is easy to set up a reward system for.
Re: (Score:2)
Make sure you use a smaller primate as they are often preyed upon by chimps. Give it a reason to beat Donkey Kong.
Re: (Score:2)
By the way, monkey cages are pretty much unsterile by definition, diapers notwithstanding.
Re: (Score:2)
> olds
You must be referring to the average Slashdot reader
There goes tournament play (Score:3, Funny)
peer review? (Score:2)
does anyone have any links to the actual scientific research paper being involved in this?
Re: (Score:2)
proprietary research is different animal than what you're imagining. are you an investor or prospective willing to sign an NDA?
Re: (Score:2)
No peer review, because they'll need to sign all this "ethics" and "legal" shit, which doesn't really apply to Saint Musk.
Re: (Score:2)
No, but it's not really extraorinary enough to doubt it. They had monkeys control robot arms with their minds years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I saw this movie already. (Score:2)
This was back when VR was going to take over and dominate everything the first time. [imdb.com]
Re: (Score:2)
A tough sell (Score:1)
Not sure if they're planning on selling an implanted brain chip or the cyborg monkey, but I don't really see either being a must-have Christmas gift anytime soon. Pet monkeys are too much trouble even when they're not trying to assimilate you, and undergoing non-medically-necessary elective brain surgery is just a big ol' nope.
Re: (Score:2)
I think it will be an option with next year's Tesla Roadster, since Level 4 autonomy is still out of reach they'll offer hands-free driving.
He's going full Bond villain (Score:5, Funny)
Someone get him a Persian cat and an overstuffed armchair.
Re: (Score:2)
Someone get him a Persian cat and an overstuffed armchair.
Rumor has it he's already ordered one.
https://filmandfurniture.com/p... [filmandfurniture.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Planet of the Apes! (Score:2)
Have we not learned anything from Hollywood? Next step, "get your hands off me you dammed dirty apes!"
Scar tissue will be a problem (Score:2)
It's interesting to see how far / fast they're progressing. Based purely on the information in the summary it appears they're now about as advanced as someother players [nin.nl] in this field when it comes to their implantation technologies - though that might be somewhat of a leap on my part, given the paucity of real information.
I suspect that they will soon experience, if they haven't already, the same primary problem with this approach, the build up of scar tissue, which significantly reduces the effectiveness o
Re: (Score:2)
It might give you the Wow feeling, to me is sounds horrifying that anyone would mutilate an innocent monkey to do this. How about we wire up Musk instead to play video games with his mind.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been watching Neuralink for a while, they seem to have a new-ish non-bioreactive polymer that they're using for the threads, 4 to 6 m in width, and an implantation process for them that doesn't prompt scarring. The implantation robot can site over 100 threads a minute, minimizing time needed for the surgery. Not only are they implanting an order of magnitude more threads than anyone previously but each thread can individually monitor and/or stimulate multiple individual nerve cells along its length.
Re: (Score:2)
Stupid Unicode.
Not 4 to 6 m in width, 4 to 6 microns in width.
Re: (Score:2)
As a friend of mine told my ex, "Hold onto your skirts, Sweetie. He's a bumpy ride." Some people are going to get bounced out of the cart.
Re: (Score:2)
This could be their focus. If they could conquer rejection, this field would explode in variety and usefulness
Just an observation, I'm personally ill at ease with the concept's potential for misuse.
New revenue stream (Score:2)
There are 20 million monkeys in the world .. enabling them to play video games could be a great boost to the industry.
Re: (Score:2)
they can do codeing million monkey crunch! (Score:2)
they can do codeing million monkey crunch!
I hate every ape I see.. (Score:1)
Overheard at the lab (Score:2)
DONKEY KONG?!! Where's Super Mario Kart??
Self driving is actually Mad Monkey modep (Score:2)
You can let go of the steering wheel now, Dave. DK1000 has the conn.
The Oculus again (Score:2)
And its game of Choice? (Score:1)
He really is running the stoners playbook. (Score:1)
I expect him to build the worlds largest bong next.