Billionaires invested $140m into Elon Musk’s rival tech company Synchron
Noland Arbaugh, 29, was finally able to do something that was previously impossible. He was allowed to freely use his Neuralink chip.
In a video on X (formerly Twitter), Arbaugh said, “I stayed awake until, geez… 6am playing Civilisation VI.” Arbaugh was paralysed eight years ago in a diving incident. He was able to play the popular strategy computer game using his brainwaves despite his disability.
In the video, he says: “It felt like I was using The Force from [Star Wars]. “I cannot even describe how cool this is.”
Arbaugh, who is Elon Musk’s first patient to receive a Neuralink implant, the “brain-computer interface”, or BCI that Elon Musk has developed. The chip is designed to restore a sense of freedom for paralysed individuals by allowing them to communicate with computers through their thoughts.
Musk claims that Neuralink could do so much more. The chip is woven into the brain of a person under the skull and will enable them to communicate telepathically, allow the blind people to see and merge the human mind with artificial intelligent, according to Musk.
Neuralink may be the company that is most well-known and has the biggest impact on the public’s mind, but it isn’t the only one.
Synchron founder Dr Tom Oxley says, “We are the Black Sheep” of the industry.
The Australian neurosurgeons’ start-up also attempts to make brainchips fit for humans. Oxley explains that the best way to imagine it is as a bluetooth control coming out of your head.
Its technology is remarkably similar to Neuralink. Synchron, unlike Musk, does not require patients to undergo a complex surgery in a clinic with high-tech robots.
Its technology is based on an old invention, the stent. This device is commonly used to treat heart conditions. This technique involves inserting a hollow tube into an artery, vein or other vessel. The tube can be used to create a pathway.
Synchron’s Stentrode Microchip is pushed into the brain of a patient via a catheter, where it can start to pick up on brainwaves.
Oxley, an expert in neurointerventions at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, believes that Synchron’s simple technique will be used “globally” over the next two years if crucial trials are successful.
Oxley, a New Yorker and Australian, explains that “to achieve scale, we don’t have to build robots for surgical centres to make this possible.”
Synchron’s logic was that its simple technique could reach a much larger number of patients than a company requiring brain surgery.
Musk’s less invasive brain implant has caught the attention of Silicon Valley and brought in cash from Musk rivals. Synchron raised $140m in funding from investors such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Bill Gates.
Oxley started his career as an aspiring medic. Rahul Sharma, his friend and cofounder, worked in cardiology – the “flashy” part of medicine. Oxley “fell inlove with the brain”.
Scientists have been researching whether computers could be connected to the brain for over 20 years, but only in recent years have breakthroughs in surgery, smaller microchips, and advanced smartphones and tablets made BCIs a reality.
Oxley had envisioned Synchron long before Musk launched his project in 2016. Oxley came up with an idea for implanting a microchip using a stent at Melbourne University during the late 2000s. He pitched the idea in 2010 to Darpa (the US military research division).
The Innovation Agency, which played a key role in the development of GPS and other new technologies, jumped at the opportunity, investing early capital.
Oxley’s TED talk in 2017 was greeted with rapturous applause, catching the attention of Silicon Valley. The 2022 funding round attracted heavyweight investors such as Bezos Expeditions and Mukesh Ambani, Indian billionaire Mukesh’s Reliance.
Synchron’s brain chip can pick up signals to allow an iPhone or iPad to be used in accessibility mode. This is for people with disabilities.
Oxley: “We tend to take for granted how important these devices are in our daily lives.” “Things such as texting, emailing and shopping, banking, healthcare, all that takes place on the phone.”
He continues: “There are a number of conditions which can prevent you from using your phone. A stroke, ALS (motor neurone disorder), spinal cord injury.”
Oxley believes Synchron’s technology can reach more patients faster than competitors who rely on surgery.
He said: “We believe we are moving quicker along the clinical and regulatory timeline because we have decades behind us regarding technology that goes into your body using blood vessels.”
There are still theoretical disadvantages of using a stent instead of directly wiring a device into the brain. The stent-chip is resting inside a blood vessel. This creates more “noise”, which makes it difficult to read brain signals.
Synchron’s Stent, for example, cannot yet detect a movement that is as detailed as a mouse moving on a screen.
Oxley acknowledges that “it’s a compromise.” Oxley believes that the device is still revolutionary, as it allows millions of people to access phone features they are not able to use at present.
BCI technology is rapidly advancing. Gert-Jan Oskam from the Netherlands was paralyzed in a cycling accident over 12 years ago. He was able walk again last year after brain and spinal implants were placed. In a cycling accident that occurred over 12 years earlier, he was paralysed. The Aria Lab of the British Government is also investigating whether these chips will be ready to go mass market in the near future.
The success of Neuralink with Arbaugh is an important milestone for this nascent tech. What about Musk’s outlandish claims, such as telepathic brainwaves and AI-symbiosis? Are these prophecies helpful or harmful to the healthcare goals that are more urgent?
Oxley: “I don’t believe it helps necessarily.” It is not the reason we come to work, and I do not think that the idea of merging with computers is the driving force behind the need for BCI.
“On the contrary, I believe that this technology is just at the beginning of its journey. It will overcome the inherent limitations in how our bodies interact with our brain.”
He adds that as brain chips improve, people will soon be able “to share their inner experiences in ways that are not possible with the body,” noting that this will bring up a number of questions about data privacy and who has access to our deepest thoughts.
Synchron has yet to demonstrate the strength of its technology. It demonstrated in 2020 how its stent could translate thoughts into action on a computer with Philip O’Keefe, a motor neurone sufferer. The company is currently in trials with the US Federal Drug Administration, and working on a production process for mass producing its stents.
Oxley: “We needed to develop a completely new manufacturing technique.”
Synchron requires more money to move on. Oxley: “We need to raise a lot of money to complete this project and will be holding another fund-raise soon.”
In trials in the US and Australia, 10 patients have already received the technology of this start-up. The next trial may include dozens or even hundreds of patients.
Oxley says that while it may not be as fast as using your hands, the technology can make a huge difference to people who are unable to use their hands.