California-based startup Neuralink has successfully implanted its chip into a human brain for the first time, the company's founder Elon Musk said.
Musk broke the news on Monday in a post on X, another company he owns.
"The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," Musk said in his post.
He added, "Enables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking. Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal."
The chip, which the company says is built with such fine threads that it cannot be implanted by human hands, was lodged by a surgical robot.
The company is testing the product under a study which it has named PRIME, or Precise Robotically Implanted Brain Computer Interface.
The aim of Neuralink's first product, named Telepathy, is to help people with paralysis – those either suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or spinal cord injury – access computer interface with mere thoughts.
The company is trying first to help such people move cursor and press keys by making the implant fire neurons in the brain that send signals to body's limb to perform actions.
According to Reuters, the US Food and Drug Administration had last year given the company approval to conduct its first human trial.
It got the approval to recruit humans for trial last September.
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