Neuralink implants brain chip in 21 ALS patients

Elon Musk's Neuralink has implanted its Telepathy brain chip in 21 people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in the United States, allowing them to control computer cursors with their minds and communicate through synthesized voices generated from brain activity. The company has developed the R1 surgical robot, which uses advanced optical coherence tomography sensors and cameras to navigate brain tissue in real-time, inserting hundreds of ultraflexible threads with thousands of electrodes at micron-level precision while avoiding blood vessels and adapting to brain movement in real-time. Meanwhile, in an Oakland courtroom, Musk is actively testifying in his lawsuit against OpenAI and its founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, accusing them of deceiving him by founding OpenAI as a non-profit in 2015 and then converting it to a for-profit company after receiving his investment. OpenAI has characterized Musk's claims as motivated by jealousy, with lawyers arguing that Musk left the company because he could not control it. The trial, presided over by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, has drawn significant attention with crowds requiring early morning line-ups, and Musk himself faced reprimands from the judge for posting social media insults about Altman during proceedings. Neuralink has stated that its devices remain experimental and are not FDA-approved, noting that the shared video features volunteer clinical trial participants whose experiences may not reflect all participants or future outcomes. The R1 robot is designed to access any region of the brain through a five-axis system for efficient entry points. Musk's lawsuit, described in his complaint as a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed" with "deceit of Shakespearean proportions," is expected to conclude this week with testimony from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and former OpenAI researcher Ilya Sutskever.