Elon Musk says Neuralink will test brain implant on second patient in ‘next week or so’

The Neuralink CEO, Elon Musk, said on Wednesday that the company would soon test its pound-coin-sized implant and brain-computer interface on a second patient. The unnamed patient’s surgery is slated for “the next week or so”, Musk said.

Surgery on a different patient intended to be the second participant in Neuralink’s human trial had been scheduled for late June but was delayed when they experienced unspecified health issues contraindicating the procedure.

The same day, the company announced that the wires attaching the first Neuralink patient’s brain to the implant in his skull had become “more or less very stable” after detaching months ago.

“Once you do the brain surgery it takes some time for the tissues to come in and anchor the threads in place, and once that happens, everything has been stable,” said the Neuralink executive Dongjin “DJ” Seo during a live stream late on Wednesday on Twitter/X.

Musk said during the live stream that the device doesn’t harm the brain. The US Food and Drug Administration, in initially considering the device years ago, had raised safety concerns but ultimately granted the company a green light last year to begin human trials.

Neuralink is also working on a new device that it believes will require half the number of electrodes to be implanted in the brain to make it more efficient and powerful, the executives said. Musk said the company was at work on another product named Blindsight that would allow the blind to see.