Elon Musk Sets up AI company “NeuraLink”
Elon Musk is a billionaire entrepreneur known for his successful investments in Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity, The Boring Company, the hyperloop transport, and founding PayPal. He is also known for his crazy-sounding projects like colonizing Mars. Recently, he added a new scientific AI-related project to his list: to replicate the human brain.
For those thinking that this is not possible, remember that self-driving cars, artificial assistants (Alexa, Google Home, Siri…etc), and the technology for self-flying planes already exist right now. Therefore, duplicating the human brain does not sound like an impossible project. Microsoft (a trillion-dollar company) has already invested $1 billion into the project.
However, this raised some eyebrows. How can companies invest in a project that creates robots that can be far more advanced and superior than any human on Earth? Stephen Hawking, a respected former scientist, has stated that he firmly believes that Artificial intelligence “could spell the end of the human race” and that “humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution” would not be able to compete with AI. And that is precisely what many people fear. Elon Musk was one of them, until 2017. Entrepreneur Elon Musk joined forces with Microsoft to develop and research Artificial Intelligence as long as it does not impose any risk to humanity.

A scientific model of the human brain.
Elon Musk set-up and funded an AI company called “NeuraLink” to research and develop further on his project to replicate the human brain. The firm developed a new device that can monitor the activity of 1,000 neurons. According to Elon Musk, the device they developed has already been tested on a monkey, which was able to control a computer with its brain. Musk is now hoping to get approved by the FDA to start human trials by 2020.
Elon Musk’s intention of replicating the human brain is “superhuman cognition” - expanding the knowledge of the human brain to a high-level capacity to improve a persons ability to work and perform. Doctors performing better and faster with the help of AI - potentially saving more lives is an example of how vital this project could be in the future.
Do you think Artificial Intelligence will enhance human abilities or be the downfall of humanity?