Neuralink has made its first-ever original Twitter post, breaking the silence on Elon Musk’s elusive brain-computer linkup startup.
The firm, which aims to develop “ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers,” announced Thursday plans to host an event in San Francisco on the evening of July 16. The private event will give guests a chance to “hear from members of our team about what we’ve done so far as well as some of our plans for the future.”
Perhaps most interesting of all, the company is giving members of the public the chance to attend the limited-space event. Candidates are invited to fill out eight questions, including a link to their LinkedIn profile and an explanation of why they should attend. Neuralink also reassures people that those who are unsuccessful can still watch the event through an online livestream.
The event’s announcement sparked elation among the account’s 39,000 followers. One follower, called “Derik,” referred to it as “the greatest leap in human evolution.” But what will Neuralink actually do?
Neuralink: What We Know So Far
Musk has regularly spoken about the need to create a brain-computer interface to stop the growth of super-smart A.I. In September 2016, Musk stated that a “human-A.I. symbiote” would help “democratize” A.I. and take power away from an “evil dictator” machine. Basically, to avoid artificial intelligence taking over, humans will have to merge with artificial intelligence:
I think if we can effectively merge with A.I. by improving the neural link between your cortex and your digital extension of yourself, which already, like I said, already exists, just has a bandwidth issue. And then effectively you become an A.I.-human symbiote. And if that then is widespread, with anyone who wants it can have it, then we solve the control problem as well, we don’t have to worry about some evil dictator A.I. because we are the A.I. collectively.
