Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to put its brain chips into UK citizens’ heads

Company hopes to help people with injuries or other conditions that limit their movement

(REUTERS)

Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to put its brain chips inside UK citizens’ heads.

The company is preparing to launch a clinical study in Great Britain, working with University College London Hospitals trust and Newcastle Hospitals, it said.

It asked for people who are living with paralysis from conditions such as motor neurone disease or a spinal cord injury to sign up to be considered to have its chips implanted in their brain.

The chips are sewn into people’s heads and allow their brain to communicate with a computer. The company says that five people with severe paralysis are already using the system to control devices with their thoughts.

Neuralink runs a website in which people can sign up for a “Patient Registry” that will allow them to be considered for trials.

The company was founded in 2016, by Elon Musk and other engineers and scientists. Since then, it has built a brain-computer interface that has been used in some trials.

Those initial human trials have all focused on people with paralysis. But Mr Musk has suggested that the chip could eventually be used to allow humans to interface with computers more generally, including by allowing information to be sent directly into their brain.

It has faced criticism for some of its early work, including the treatment of some of the primates and other animals used in its trials.

It has been looking to expand its early trials internationally, which has included work in Canada as well as the UK.