Elon Musk’s NeuraLink Chip To Stream Music To Your Brain

Watch out Spotify? Elon Musk has suggested that his NeuraLink implant will eventually be able to stream music directly into a person’s brain.

The idea of bypassing earphones (and even ears) altogether came when the boss of Tesla conducted a brief Twitter exchange with computer scientist, Austin Howard.

Musk has previously suggested that the Neuralink chip could also help to cure depression and addiction.

Brain interface

In 2017 Musk revealed his plans develop a human brain to computer interface within the next four years with his company Neuralink.

Musk’s company is focusing on creating chips that can be implanted in the human brain, with the end goal of enabling people to effectively merge with software and adapt to the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI).

Last July for example Musk outlined plans for a NeuraLink chip implanted in the human brain that could allow for a ‘symbiosis with artificial intelligence’.

Essentially, the goal is to create brain interfaces to alleviate symptoms of chronic medical and neurological conditions in human beings.

According to Musk NeuraLink has already tested the interface device on monkeys, who were able to control a computer via their brain.

It is unknown whether NeuraLink has gained approval the US Food and Drug Administration to begin human testing.

It is known that Neuralink’s chip, called the N1 can be surgically implanted into the brain using a robot through a two-inch incision. The operation allegedly takes less than an hour.

NeuraLink will have to compete with Facebook however, as it has also previously revealed plans to connect human brains to computers.

Music streaming

And now Musk has suggested that the implant could be used to stream music directly into the brain itself.

“If we implement neuralink – can we listen to music directly from our chips? Great feature,” tweeted computer scientist Austin Howard.

“Yes” tweeted Musk in reply.

Musk also appealed in another tweet for anyone who has “solved hard problems with phones / wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power mgmt, etc), please consider working at NeuraLink.

Musk vs AI

The decision of Elon Musk to create NeuraLink could be considered surprising to some, considering his well known caution about artificial intelligence.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has previously clashed with Musk over artificial intelligence (AI), accusing him of not understanding the emerging technology.

Musk, speaking during an interview at the AeroAstro Centennial Symposium at MIT in 2015 called AI “our biggest existential threat”.

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