Elon Musk Reveals Neuralink’s Plans To Let People Control iPhones With Their Mind

For the first time through a presentation at the California Academy of Sciences, Neuralink- an American neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk announced its plans of initiating trials on humans with their newest brain-machine interfaces the following year. What is there to expect?

Neuralink has its own ambitious plans to facilitate humans’ activities with AI, but among the ones it envisions, one significant application is to enable users to control their iPhone with their mind.

The company is working on tiny sensors connected to human brains via flexible threads, which measures approximately 4 to 6 μm wide, considerably thinner than a human hair. The processors are set on the skull, transferring a large volume of data to a small portable computer (named The Link) right behind your ear. Now, you are able to control your iPhone with only your thought.

Neuralink’s president, Max Hodak, claimed that after being trained, anyone is good to work with the keyboard and cursor of their phones. Via The Link, the system can easily obtain data from inside your brain, just like any other input devices. This could help physically disabled people with their daily activities.

We are still unsure about the practicality of this “digital telekinesis”; and the company itself said that it would be a long time before this technology can be distributed commercially. However, if Neuralink can achieve everything presented at the presentation, it will certainly transform the human’s relationship with AI.

Neuralink is not the pioneer company in exploring brain-machine interfaces. Others, for example, Paradromics and Kernel, are developing their own projects in this field, and even the US Military participates. Many scientists are also working on a brain implant to transfer paralyzed patients’ thoughts into speech.