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Elon Musk's Neuralink Gets $27 Million To Build Brain Computers (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the matrix dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Neuralink, the startup co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as $100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers. The San Francisco-based company has already gotten $27 million in funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said via Twitter on Friday that Neuralink isn't seeking outside investors. In June, Musk said Neuralink is a priority after much more demanding commitments to his automotive and rocket companies. "Boring Co. is maybe 2 percent of my time; Neuralink is 3 percent to 5 percent of my time; OpenAI is going to be a couple of percent; and then 90-plus percent is divided between SpaceX and Tesla," said Musk at the electric-car maker's annual shareholder meeting.

76 comments

  1. Nice headline by philmarcracken · · Score: 1

    I thought they might have ditched the idea of building an interface that connects directly to your brain(avoiding slow ponderous hand motions of keyboards/mice) and just jumped straight in the brain computer.

    Whatever that is.

    1. Re:Nice headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It would be nice if your Tesla could at least send your brain an apology message after it realizes it fucked up but can't correct, in the split second before you impact the concrete support structure.

    2. Re:Nice headline by SCVonSteroids · · Score: 1

      It's a computer that looks like a brain, duh!

      --
      I tend to rant.
    3. Re:Nice headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Another step towards becoming the Borg.

    4. Re:Nice headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We THINK that's a good idea, until the computer zombies come to eat our computer brainz. I don't think that we thought this through enough.

    5. Re: Nice headline by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      talk to your local neuro.

    6. Re:Nice headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a brain that looks like a computer, duh!

      or da smartest computah evah!

  2. Plotlines. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Human brains with computers? That was one of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution plotlines.

    1. Re:Plotlines. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deus Ex: HR had a plot?

    2. Re: Plotlines. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, the Quest for More Revenues. $$$$$

  3. A little too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Tesla driver who got denogginized could have used a neuralink. What good is a self-driving car when it plows into the side of an 18 wheeler in broad daylight. Oh the humanity.

    1. Re: A little too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A.I. cars are an IQ Test. If you are stupid enogh to bet your life on California Software, the Darwin Award is yours for the taking.
      And what happens if a political group, like ISIS, hacks ALL Teslas and rams them into crowded markets ? Single source controlling all Vehicles with automated updates is a cyberattack terrorist mass casualty opportunity too good to pass up. Thanks Musk, but I'll keep my head attached to my neck, and my car under my control.

  4. just don't call it morgellons... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    some still calling this 'weather'? cease fire stand down,, sing along.. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=morgellons+weather

  5. computers already interface with the brain by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    via the keyboard & mouse and monitor

    all joking aside, there is no way in hell am i going to allow ANY connections directly to my brain, they got to be crazy to go mucking around with connecting things directly to the brain like that

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:computers already interface with the brain by mattr · · Score: 1

      Yes I can't imagine any software engineer who would willingly connect anything to your brain, poof you've been owned. Though you might be willing if you are a:
      - parapalegic physicist
      - fighter pilot (remember the movie Firefox? you have to think in Russian. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... )
      - ???

    2. Re: computers already interface with the brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are still under the illusion you will be given a choice.
      When google glasses are an implant, and the people competing for your job literally have every possible concept and the whole human database we call the Internet, nonEnhanced humans need not Apply.

      The Augments and the CyberGenders will be competing against A.I robots.
      The line will be blurred on who is a human and who is A.I. full robotics.
      Are they Humans with cybernetic implants, or are the A.I. with an Organic Avatar interface useful for marketing.

      "Naturals" will become an insulting term, as you are seen as some old grandpa that doesn't know hoe email works, and can't do quantum mathmatics in his head...

      People think they run the machines.

      The machines see meatbags as just another device controled through the USB port.

    3. Re: computers already interface with the brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So in other words, "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." ?

    4. Re:computers already interface with the brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on how rigorous the safety features are, and how great the benefits of connecting are.

      There is an entire world of over-the-top awesome that is made possible by tech like this. For people who are a little less afraid of change than you, it sounds very promising.

    5. Re: computers already interface with the brain by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      I can search Google with a screen, keyboard and mouse, you know. At Quantum Mechanics is just differential equations, so "doing them in your head" isn't terribly interesting. Certainly, it's easier to do them by by having a computer solve them, but then again, I can do that with keyboard and mouse.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    6. Re: computers already interface with the brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll take "shit that's not going to happen for $1000 Alex"

  6. Electric shocks please by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

    For people that can't use your and you're correctly

    1. Re:Electric shocks please by Rei · · Score: 1

      Can it apply to "lose" and "loose" as well?

      --
      He's just being nice so my real father won't freeze him in carbonite and sell him for spice.
    2. Re:Electric shocks please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can it apply to "lose" and "loose" as well?

      And 'I could care less'?

    3. Re:Electric shocks please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The latest trend in the U.S. is "bias" and "prejudice" as adjectives, e.g. "He is being bias". Sickening, but on the rise.

    4. Re:Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      Additionally to my numerous posts with tons of grammar/spelling mistakes in both English and Spanish (my mother tongue), I do intentionally write non-existing words like "unmotivatedly". My question for you and the other supporters/executioners in the comments below: will I also be electro-shocked or should I expect a more painful punishment? BTW, nice full stop at the end of the sentence over there.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    5. Re:Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      Ups! Almost forgot about the non-serious tag for that post. Here you have it: ;) (+ extra help for individuals with extremely-poor-understanding skills: no, I am not afraid of being electro-shocked).

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    6. Re:Electric shocks please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And perhaps "ordnance" and "ordinance."

    7. Re: Electric shocks please by fluffernutter · · Score: 1

      Yes that must be very problematic for people too stupid to work out the meaning of a sentence from the other words in it.

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    8. Re:Electric shocks please by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      Reading your suggestion makes me think you're like the phone company making me hang up and dial a "1" or hang up and dial without the "1." If they're computers connected directly to the brains of these people whose usage is habitually improper, they can just ensure that the words that get out henceforth are correct and not bother with trying to train monkeys.

    9. Re: Electric shocks please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just send the one they asked for incorrectly. Hilarity ensues

    10. Re:Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      trying to train monkeys

      Describing someone as a monkey usually implies that this person has a somehow limited comprehension ability or isn't even able to perform complex, human-like thoughts/interactions. In programming, "code monkeys" are the ones who blindly copy-paste/type what is written somewhere else, without properly understanding and without a real knowledge; basically, what a monkey or another animal would do in case of being in front of a computer: repeating simple actions, not precisely for a too sensible reason (because the sound is nice or because someone told them to do so).

      What do you think that is more monkey- (irrational, arbitrary)-like? Blindly applying certain abstract rules with no real intrinsic purpose other than helping to better fulfilling a given goal (= proper communication) + acting aggressively against anyone not doing so; or adequately understanding the situation, the importance of each bit and actually accomplishing the intended goal of adequately understanding regardless of irrelevant details? What do you think that a monkey would do in a similar situation? If you train a monkey to know that "food" means that it will eat, do you think that it would understand "foud"? Or might perhaps get angry and act aggressively because of feeling frustrated with a world which is too complex for it and which can barely understand?

      The funniest thing of people like you or the electro-shocker above is that you seriously think that any kind of ridiculous errors are associated with lack of knowledge (what BTW denotes your own limitations)! You don't seem to understand that not everyone else might share your scale of priorities ("I have to make sure that each single word I write is fine such that nobody can criticise me"); other people might prefer to adequately understand and to care about what really matters/is really indicative of whatever issue rather than getting lost in irrelevancies; there might even be some cases where people intentionally break those rules to somehow criticise whatever fanatic behaviour. There are always many possible reasons for reaching the same outcome, no sensible person should ever blindly assume otherwise.

      In case it isn't clear, I am not supporting the lack of care in writing (online or anywhere else) or minimising the importance of the rules of the English language (or of any other language). I am plainly criticising fanaticism: supporting electro-shocking or calling someone a monkey over this?! Not because of not properly understanding something, but because of not perfectly respecting a set of abstract rules meant to facilitate that understanding process!! Not just feeling internally bothered or suggesting an improvement or teaching that person; not even focusing on cases where the error is truly relevant to accomplish the given goal because of actually avoiding a proper communication! These arbitrary attacks were exclusively motivated by abstract rules not fully respected and not even in a very specific context where this is a very relevant issue! And the best part is that a big proportion of people so concerned about these issues (mainly the most aggressive ones; aggressiveness when used to arbitrarily and unfairly attack others is undoubtedly bad) have serious understanding problems! They are so concern about making sure that all the words follow a certain set of rules that forget about properly understanding the transmitted message! Pffff.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    11. Re:Electric shocks please by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      My thought was that, in comparison to AIs, we are all monkeys, on account of genetics, biological evolution and such. No wanting behavior modification practiced on me, I'm also not favorable towards it being practiced on others.

    12. Re:Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      OK. My apologies for having misunderstood your intention.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    13. Re:Electric shocks please by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      No offence taken. Communication is often imperfect for me as well.

    14. Re:Electric shocks please by Whibla · · Score: 1

      I do intentionally write non-existing words like "unmotivatedly".

      The other day I wrote the word "unprovable" in a post, and was puzzled at the red underlining. I checked elsewhere and apparently, while improvable was ok (though clearly meaning something completely different), "unprovable", up to that point, was not a word.

      Well, it is now!

      Moreover, like all the best new words its meaning is / was clear not just from the context in which it appeared but also by simply reading it.

      Language is not some fixed unchanging thing, forever set in stone. There are over a million words in the English language, and someone had to 'invent' them. Might as well be you or I...

    15. Re:Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      "unprovable" in a post, and was puzzled at the red underlining

      Automatic spell/grammar checks have surely become a very helpful tool to avoid problems on this front, but I also ignore their suggestions relatively often. I agree with you in languages being variable realities which should adapt to how people use them rather than the other way around.

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
    16. Re: Electric shocks please by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Only for native speakers I'm afraid. You'll have to do a bad Spanish version if you want the same.

    17. Re: Electric shocks please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus. Having a difficult day, ey?

    18. Re: Electric shocks please by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      While I agree with you, the language has not changed with regards to your and you're, it just seems too hard for a lot of people to type that extra 'e'.

    19. Re: Electric shocks please by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

      You'll have to do a bad Spanish version if you want the same.

      What about "malo eh de pedí peo má malo eh de rová"? Come on! Spare some electro-shocks! LOL

      --
      Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
  7. Google in your Head by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google not only wants your location, spending habits, activities, and interests, now they want to read your mind, and write directly into it too.
    So Censorship will stamp out Free Will and Free Speech once and for all.

  8. fuck musk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    crack open his skull and mash his brain to mush

  9. BeauHD pushing out his Quota! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice job there. You're posting-numbers this morning are impressive. Soon you may get promoted to Beau4K.

  10. hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wasn't this motherfucker just in the news about banning some shit about "AI" so the skynet overloads wouldn't enslave us all, and now here he is building "Brain Computers."

    1. Re:hypocrisy by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 4, Funny

      He's afraid of other AIs because he wants the entire market for his AIs.

    2. Re:hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then, with your empty head, he sure ain't afraid of you.

      https://noplaceforsheep.files....

    3. Re:hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heavy creiming on a Saturday? Didn't meat the spam quota this weak?

    4. Re:hypocrisy by JoshuaZ · · Score: 2

      Actually, Musk's interest in neuralink is in part to help make sure that we do end up with safe general AI and that we don't have substantial problems with unfriendly AGI. See https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html which gives a detailed breakdown of the goals and likely obstacles.

    5. Re: hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be so naive, he's worrying about the misuse his own work. In the case of the U.K. Government, they likely share their "copy" with local contractors along with realtime feeds on what their competitors are doing abroad.

    6. Re:hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Muskrat is a fountain of bullshit.

    7. Re:hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The title is clickbait, he's not building a "brain computer" but a high-bandwidth interface between computers and human brains. Think of it like the next evolution of the mouse & keyboard.

    8. Re:hypocrisy by sysrammer · · Score: 1

      Ai yi yi.

      --
      His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
    9. Re:hypocrisy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you can't beat 'em, merge with them.

  11. When choosing the brain to interface with... by LordHighExecutioner · · Score: 1

    ...please use some care.

    1. Re:When choosing the brain to interface with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thank you kind sir

  12. AI, brains and computers by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    You know, for a guy who's publicly terrified of AI and robotics taking over, he certainly is investing a crapload of cash into such ventures. I guess he really does want to sell the rope that's going to be used to hang him...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re:AI, brains and computers by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Elon Musk: "No, no, no! AI will doom us all (unless it's the AI in a self-driving Tesla Model X). Instead, we connect HUMAN brains to the machines! Yeah, that's the ticket. That way, a human will be in control of the deadly robots at all times (Unless it's a self-driving Tesla Model X)."

      "BTW: It doesn't matter anyway because we're all living in a simulation."

    2. Re: AI, brains and computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your ancestral father who served on the Roman Inquisition would be so proud of you right now.

    3. Re:AI, brains and computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Musk's been a few sandwiches short of a picnic for quite some time now. It's only a matter of further time until he starts storing his own urine in jars.

  13. What next by AlanObject · · Score: 1

    My god you can't get that boy to sit still can you.

    Someone tell me if he has a market-disrupting sex toy investment. He has to have one by now he has pursued just about everything else.

    1. Re:What next by Rei · · Score: 2

      To the point of parody. ;)

      That said, Neuralink is not new. It just hasn't made the press as much. I definitely recommend the earlier-linked Waitbutwhy article, which is based on interviews with people involved in Neuralink. It's a very long article, but very detailed and thought provoking.

      Neuralink is probably Musk's most ambitious project - the least likely to succeed, but with the most profound impacts on the future of humanity if it does.

      --
      He's just being nice so my real father won't freeze him in carbonite and sell him for spice.
  14. Siri, lower my blood-pressure by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Would be nice

    1. Re: Siri, lower my blood-pressure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes master nospam007, now lowering your blood pressure to zero.

  15. Time is money... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, Slashdot, you're only worth 0.005 percent of my time.

    1. Re:Time is money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      .005%? It's 10:10 on a weekend morning, you have posted 20 times, and literally nothing you've posted is of interest to a technically minded person; it's all drama.

      Obviously Slashdot is your social life, just for some reason you choose a social life where everybody makes fun of you and wishes you would go away. Maybe it reminds you of your childhood?

    2. Re:Time is money... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      .005%? It's 10:10 on a weekend morning, you have posted 20 times

      This is the 14th comment for today.

      literally nothing you've posted is of interest to a technically minded person; it's all drama.

      You must have missed reading this thread then: https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11037471&cid=55089687

    3. Re:Time is money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the 14th comment for today.

      Go to https://slashdot.org/~creimer and count.

    4. Re:Time is money... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Go to https://slashdot.org/~creimer and count.

      This is the 15th comment for today. Your point?

    5. Re:Time is money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      15 digital bird-cage liners. Dale and Shirley must be so proud.

    6. Re:Time is money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You must have missed reading this thread then"

      How is what you read 20 years ago interesting or relevant to a technically-minded person?

  16. Needs neuroscientists, not just engineers by notil · · Score: 1

    From this article: “No neuroscience experience is required: talent and drive matter far more,” the company says on the site. “We expect most of our team to come from other areas and industries.” Eh...sounds like the bottleneck here will not be engineering machines, but getting them to produce meaningful changes in the brain at a neurological and psychological level. It doesn't matter how sophisticated your implants are if you don't have a way of reliably changing brain activity in a way that benefits a disease, which involves an incredibly sophisticated understanding of pathology at a molecular, cellular, and systems level, etc. etc. It's not really "plug and play"

  17. Gotten by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gotten

  18. Am as big a nerd as they come by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but is it too late to go Amish?

  19. A Brainless Ant... by antdude · · Score: 1

    For me, I have no brain. I would like a computer in my head. :P

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  20. You can totally expect many more of these by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As Musk hustles the ignorant to raise money with one startup after another, all somehow indirectly funding each other with Musk taking a chunk. Success is not a goal, just fundraising. We can expect the buzzword bingo to continue until it starts to unravel somewhere down the line when he loses interest in fleecing the rubes.