Elon Musk says experimental monkey with brain implant plays video games with its mind

Input devices are needed in order for computers to process data. But for Elon Musk, manual human intervention such as typing on a keyboard or using a mouse may soon be a thing of the past. The Tesla CEO has just declared that one of his companies has successfully implanted on a monkey's brain and it is playing video games by merely thinking.

The world's richest man appeared in an interview on "The Goodtime Show" on the app Clubhouse on Saturday night. He said that his company, Neuralink, was able to equip a monkey with an implant that allowed it to play a video game just by thinking, Business Insider reported. He said that Neuralink is pouring efforts into building high-tech brain implants, which will allow human beings to control computers using their minds.

The billionaire said that they have a monkey that has wireless implants in its skull as well as tiny wires. The monkey, according to Musk, "can play video games using his mind." Musk even toyed with the idea of getting two monkeys to play "mind-Pong" against each other, which he said would be pretty cool.

Neuralink has the goal of helping paralysed patients to be able to interact with computers or their cellphones. The design of their interface, which allows communication between the brain and the machine, is being developed to achieve this goal.

During the interview with Musk, which ran up to more than 1.5 hours, he revealed that it was not just the acclaimed monkey that received an early version of the implant. He went on to describe that the implant was like Fitbit inside the skull with tiny wires, New York Post reported.

In August, Musk openly presented how the company was able to install an interface inside the brain of a pig. This, however, was highly criticised by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Back then, the group's President Ingrid Newkirk said that Musk must behave like a pioneer and implant the chip in his own brain instead of exploiting pigs.

Elon Musk Monkey Implant

"Elon Musk is no primatologist, or he'd never suggest a monkey who's strapped to a chair with a metal device implanted in his skull and forced to watch video games all day is anything but miserable," said the senior vice president of the Laboratory Investigations Department at PETA US. However, Musk said that the monkey is not uncomfortable and he does not look weird.