Musk claims Neuralink patient doing OK with implant, can move mouse with brain

gsgrego

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Tesla is a grift? You think there would be millions of EVs on the road today without Musk? And sorry, SpaceX is is the result of his vision, direction, effort, investment, and yes, engineering. You don't like his tweets? Fine, neither do I (mostly in the past 6 months), but this narrative that he is a grifter when he has created the two most interesting and influential technology companies of the century is just unadulterated BS.
What did the moron create?

Please point to something that he designed, engineered, or programmed on tesla or rocket.

The only thing he did at tesla was fund it and take it over from the founders. His great ideas since have resulted in numerous recalls and investigations and his latest is a expensive rusting death machine that is sure to get him sued.

SpaceX he has almost entirely stayed out of and the only thing he did is fund it .
 
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henryhbk

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I'm personally shocked that Musk has likely spent hundreds of millions on something that replicates a device that was available 20 years ago and is presenting it as a big deal.

Emphasis mine. I've read comments on how the fact that the FDA signed off on clinical trials didn't eliminate the need for surgeons to get approval from various medical associations before performing the procedure. Which they didn't. So either this procedure took place in the US and any doctors that took part would be endangering their licenses if it became known who they are, or the procedure was done outside of the US. This quote seems to allude to this.
Do you mean the IRB at the hospitals? As a doctor who has trialed a device in an approved study I certainly didn't contact any medical associations other than my hospital's IRB and filed an IND with the FDA (it was a low risk external device for use in the OR). Presumably the patient also had to sign a consent for surgery and all the usual things we do when a patient goes to the OR. Now the one big thing that can get you in serious hot water would be if you billed the patient's insurance for the surgery when it was a research trial. That will get you nailed to a wall (in a courtroom) for billing fraud since presumably these are medicare patients on disability.
 
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gsgrego

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Competent, consenting adult agrees to take part in experiment approved by federal regulators. Adult understands the risks and accepts them. Ethicists go crazy because they didn't get to stick their noses under the tent.

My body, my choice doesn't just mean abortion...
Good for you. When it kills someone else though you should get charged with murder along with the creator.
 
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Wait:

"Caplan and Moreno acknowledged that Neuralink and Musk seem to be "in the clear" legally"

All I see is a lot of whining here.

After their whining they even admit, they are following legal guidelines.
What is this article even about? This whole article is a "oh my gosh they might be doing something bad!" and your evidence for this is that Elon Musk gives you the updates. Throwing around possible ethics violations with absolutely no factual evidence, using only that a person you dislike conveyed the information. Absolutely crazy.
Yes, people who create accounts just to simp for Musk are absolutely crazy, I agree.
 
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gsgrego

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While he is a putz as a person, sometimes funding a crazy out there idea that everyone tells you is stupid but you fundamentally believe is a good course can be transformative. Remember the hundred+ launches per year of old space? Yeah me neither. Believing it was a valid solution, even if you didn't sit at the CAD station yourself isn't the same as doing nothing. Steve Jobs didn't build things at apple but there would be no mac, iPhone, iPad, etc without his belief that it was the way to do it, and applying apple's funding towards making them reality.
So nothing.

Um... Steve Jobs and mush the pedoman are not the same.
 
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henryhbk

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Competent, consenting adult agrees to take part in experiment approved by federal regulators. Adult understands the risks and accepts them. Ethicists go crazy because they didn't get to stick their noses under the tent.

My body, my choice doesn't just mean abortion...
But what ethicists are mostly concerned about is was the informed consent free of any form of pressure. If you suffer one of these conditions you are desperate possibly for a cure and a too-good-to-be-true promise might encourage you to take a medical risk you can't evaluate (because presumably you aren't a neurosurgeon). On the surface brain implant sounds terrible, but honestly I've sent patients for all sorts of things to be put in their heads, Omaya reservoirs, VP shunts, stents, coils, etc. I didn't do the surgery since I am not a neurosurgeon, so can't know if the implantation is worse than the other things (certainly had to have an infected Omaya removed [that is very very bad BTW]) Since the device is presumably reading only it is less likely to cause a problem and assuming sterility etc but who knows the chemical/metalurgical safety (yes a mature field, but we still get stupidity from industry not infrequently)
 
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Snark218

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Yes, people who create accounts just to simp for Musk are absolutely crazy, I agree.
Speaking of absolutely crazy, apparently Elon and "Adrian Dittmann" were in a Twitter space beating a drum about how they sound like the same guy, and Elon's mom joined to claim she couldn't tell them apart? And there was a weird feedback echo when "Adrian" started talking?

Holy shit. Either he is just going tissue-box shoes crazy, or he must have been recorded saying some shit.
 
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orwelldesign

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OSIRIS-REx?


Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security -- Regolith Explorer

makes a damn lot more sense than

PRIME (Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface.)

"Brain-Computer" is just not present at all in the acronym.

OSIRIS-REx might be forced, but at least contains all the components.
 
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"Science by press release, while increasingly common, is not science," Caplan and Moreno wrote in an essay published by the nonprofit Hastings Center. "When the person paying for a human experiment with a huge financial stake in the outcome is the sole source of information, basic ethical standards have not been met."
Sure but Neuralink is doing business first and science second so...
 
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stk5

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Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security -- Regolith Explorer

makes a damn lot more sense than

PRIME (Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface.)

"Brain-Computer" is just not present at all in the acronym.

OSIRIS-REx might be forced, but at least contains all the components.
Seriously. If somebody’s going to go the backronym route, they could at least have the decency to use all of the letters.

Even the movie R.O.T.O.R. pulled it off, and in two different ways to boot!
 
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gsgrego

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Not arguing either of them are nice people I ever wanted to be in a room with or god forbid near my family, but that isn't the same as saying the overall idea driver at a company isn't contributing. Yes he is a total ass, and hating him is popular (and what he did with X was egregiously stupid and well it cost $20b+ and I wish he would STFU except around rockets) but believing that boosters could land and be reused and pushing that idea despite most people "who knew" telling the world it would fail, look pretty stupid now (in the same way Michael Dell looked stupid criticizing Apple over making "multi-colored computers", and a couple years later Dell had the brilliant idea to make non-beige/gray computers). Musk carried that idea to the brink of bankruptcy when finally falcon flew without blowing up. Sure I wouldn't get on a rocket he designed, but I would get on a rocket he convinced and obtained funding for a skilled engineer to design...
Steve Jobs had an actual history of achievements. He was most definitely not just a rich ideas guy.

Mush is a racist, sexual assaulter, eho has done nothing but end up rich.
 
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You will get nothing but hate for any Musk company
As always, any time the pathetic little meetings about how Ars is anti-Musk comes out, without addressing the actually subject of the article, the immediate presumption is that person whining is intentionally not interested in discussing the meat of the issue because it would induce cognitive dissonance.

So, try addressing the subject. Do you think that Elon Musk, not the company itself, making claims about a patient (with whom he is unlikely to have a confidentially agreement, personally) rather than presenting information in a more open way is a good thing? Do you think that it sufficiently covers standard industry practices, and if not, whether that’s a good thing?

If all you can do is moan about how Ars hates Musk, but can’t make a cogent argument as to why the article is wrong, the only implication is that you can’t defend the behavior and that but for your weird paradoxical relationship, you’d be willing to criticize such behavior.
 
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NZArtist

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I'm embarrassed to admit that you're not alone.
Maestro4k said:


For some reason when I read the headline about moving a mouse with their brain along with the small preview image of the chip my wonky brain decided this meant moving an actual mouse of the rodent family.
The mouse was brought to tears by the struggles of the patient. His soul was moved, he found the experience to be a defining moment in his life.
 
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Don Reba

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What did the moron create?

Please point to something that he designed, engineered, or programmed on tesla or rocket.

The only thing he did at tesla was fund it and take it over from the founders. His great ideas since have resulted in numerous recalls and investigations and his latest is a expensive rusting death machine that is sure to get him sued.

SpaceX he has almost entirely stayed out of and the only thing he did is fund it .
Pretty sure he drew the cybertruck on a paper napkin.
 
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28 (29 / -1)
Gosh, and all it took before was a stupid looking hat.

Scalp EEG has really poor spatial resolution (the claim I recall is 3-4 cm, but this older paper mentions 5-9 cm)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548479/
that is about 1 signal per 140 (3cm) to 1,270 (9cm) million neurons (there are about 20 million neurons per sq cm), so they can give estimates of population behavior. Neuralink uses 96 probes with 32 electrodes per probe, for a total of 3072 electrodes per chip. each chip and packaging battery, etc is 23 mm x 8 mm (1.85 sq cm) or about 11624 signals per 140 million neurons. It is an extraordinary improvement in resolution and these are capable of close to single neuron information. Even comparing it to other prior invasive probe work it is a massive improvement in density.

Now whether that translates to something with clinical applications with superiority to EEG or MEG is unclear - though it seems likely clinical utility will happen. Even if no clinical applications occur, it will likely be extremely useful for neurological researchers.
 
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lewax00

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While he is a putz as a person, sometimes funding a crazy out there idea that everyone tells you is stupid but you fundamentally believe is a good course can be transformative. Remember the hundred+ launches per year of old space? Yeah me neither. Believing it was a valid solution, even if you didn't sit at the CAD station yourself isn't the same as doing nothing. Steve Jobs didn't build things at apple but there would be no mac, iPhone, iPad, etc without his belief that it was the way to do it, and applying apple's funding towards making them reality.
I can write a check too, where are my billions of dollars?
 
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11 (13 / -2)

orwelldesign

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
6,644
Subscriptor++
Not arguing either of them are nice people I ever wanted to be in a room with or god forbid near my family, but that isn't the same as saying the overall idea driver at a company isn't contributing. Yes he is a total ass, and hating him is popular (and what he did with X was egregiously stupid and well it cost $20b+ and I wish he would STFU except around rockets) but believing that boosters could land and be reused and pushing that idea despite most people "who knew" telling the world it would fail, look pretty stupid now (in the same way Michael Dell looked stupid criticizing Apple over making "multi-colored computers", and a couple years later Dell had the brilliant idea to make non-beige/gray computers). Musk carried that idea to the brink of bankruptcy when finally falcon flew without blowing up. Sure I wouldn't get on a rocket he designed, but I would get on a rocket he convinced and obtained funding for a skilled engineer to design...

That's not true, btw. About the rockets.

He had the money to do hardware rich development, but the idea wasn't "his" idea. There's papers about it from the 1970s and onwards. It had and has been bandied about in rocketry circles for decades -- his contribution was enough money to blow them up repeatedly on purpose until it worked. He went and hired some folks who'd been interested in doing that for their whole careers, and they did it.

He got very, very lucky. He wouldn't even have had his seed investment but for luck -- he was fired for incompetence but still got a big fat check. Tens of millions of dollars from getting fired.

And, what I said on page one is still true: he literally, not a joke, used "I'm not a serious person, no one should ever take me seriously" as a defense. In a court of law.
 
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stormcrash

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So nothing.

Um... Steve Jobs and mush the pedoman are not the same.
Honestly one thing people don't give Jobs enough credit for is that he almost never tried to take the credit. Listen to his presentations or interviews about products and he almost never says "I", it's always "we" or "Apple", like "We think we've got something incredible" or "The team here at Apple have been hard at work on this" etc. He knew that even though he may have been the "vision" guy and was the leader as CEO, the credit belonged to the company and its employees.

Jobs also knew how to delegate. Apple didn't need an entire team running interference on Jobs the way SpaceX is on record having "Musk Managers" whenever he's on site to keep him from meddling and micromanaging
 
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Uragan

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Scalp EEG has really poor spatial resolution (the claim I recall is 3-4 cm, but this older paper mentions 5-9 cm)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4548479/
that is about 1 signal per 140 (3cm) to 1,270 (9cm) million neurons (there are about 20 million neurons per sq cm), so they can give estimates of population behavior. Neuralink uses 96 probes with 32 electrodes per probe, for a total of 3072 electrodes per chip. each chip and packaging battery, etc is 23 mm x 8 mm (1.85 sq cm) or about 11624 signals per 140 million neurons. It is an extraordinary improvement in resolution and these are capable of close to single neuron information. Even comparing it to other prior invasive probe work it is a massive improvement in density.

Now whether that translates to something with clinical applications with superiority to EEG or MEG is unclear - though it seems likely clinical utility will happen. Even if no clinical applications occur, it will likely be extremely useful for neurological researchers.
You're assuming that they actually accomplished their stated goals of number of probes and electrodes per probe. We literally have no idea how many probes were implanted and how many have actually ended up working.
 
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Moving a mouse cursor by thinking doesn't require invasive implants. I did psychology at uni in the early 2000s, and we had a device that could do that just with external electrodes (which did nothing worse than make your hair a bit messy with the glue when you took them off!).
That's called an EEG. It's the same basic setup as an EKG/ECG when put near the heart, or generally an EMG (myography for muscle).

These things do not "read the brain", much as Musk probably wants, given his musings. Muscles are electrical too and you can detect when they contract with an electrode on the surface of the skin. Getting clear readings through such a noisy environment and at distance can be tricky, but muscles, hearts etc. give clear enough signals. We can look at the brain too, but only superficially and it's much more difficult to get through the skull to see a weak, complicated mess of activity. But there are certain brain-wide patterns that can be discerned -- a good, easy example (and one that is verifiable not confused with e.g. muscles in the forehead moving) is a change when people close their eyes for a bit. Moving a cursor on a screen by training a person to concentrate or exert mentally in certain ways that produce differentiable signals is a decades old trick, but it is very unreliable.

Hence an implant. At the very least, cutting through everything in the way gets a clearer signal, and you can put smaller electrodes in more targeted arrangements. But it's the same trick. There is no reading of the mind and will not be at any time, let alone the wacky fantasies about uploading oneself to the metaverse. But what could be done are things like better sleep study, and reliable control of prosthesis or assistance for ALS sufferers. We've done it in other species long before Neuralink came around.

Musk describes attempting to differentiate between more than 2 signalling states. It doesn't sound like they've done anything even on par with the classic helmet web of greasy electrodes, or some commercial toys like the Muse. Even if there were no complications (I don't take Musk's word on anything, but here I wouldn't take anyone's word, at such an early stage and with such superficial analysis), there is no benefit yet.
 
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stormcrash

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Predictions:
— Patient will find out that as an extra bonus, they can activate a machine that makes fart sounds.
— FDA will determine the procedure is unsafe. Musk will call them "pedos".
Bonus prediction: Musk sues calling the FDA unconstitutional because they have the ability to make and enforce rules he doesn't like (just like he's doing with the NLRB and SEC)
 
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