Neuralink’s Newest Brain Chip Isn’t What You Think — Transcript

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1. 0:00This robot is putting a computer  chip into a human brain.
2. 0:06Whoa. This is Neuralink's Next Gen R1 surgical  robot, and it's one of several new ways scientists
3. 0:12are now combining your brain with a computer,  which sounds like science fiction because...it is,
4. 0:19but not anymore. And you need to know about  this right now because human clinical trials
5. 0:23are happening. And this tech is moving  fast. And some people want to use it to
6. 0:28make you superhuman. "So you could be like Geordi La Forge in Star Trek and you can see in radar,
7. 0:34you can see in infrared." "Captain, we can  do it." But I think most people are missing
8. 0:37what's really huge if true here. This  story isn't about trying to make us more
9. 0:43like machines. It's actually one of the  most cutting-edge ways to keep us human.
10. 1:02The first step if you want a brain chip is you  need to scan your brain. If you took your brain
11. 1:09out of your head, it'd be about as heavy as  a supermarket chicken. And if you touched it,
12. 1:13it would feel like...Oh, it's squishy. Ooh, it's firmer than I thought. It feels like the inside
13. 1:24of a kiwi. It feels like a mango. It feels like,  why is everything a fruit? It feels like a wet
14. 1:33hot dog. I don't like it. And it's moving.  About a fifth of the blood from your every
15. 1:41heartbeat goes into your brain. The fact that it's  pulsating is really alarming. And you've probably
16. 1:47heard that your brain is like a computer. And at  first that comparison works because your brain
17. 1:52and a computer are both really just processors,  right? Input in, output out. You hit a key and
18. 1:57your computer processes that and sends it to  the monitor. You see a cup about to fall off
19. 2:01the table and your brain processes that and then  sends a signal to your arm to catch it. But
20. 2:06if the human brain is a computer, it is by far the most  complicated computer we've ever seen. There are
21. 2:11more connections in there than galaxies in the  observable universe. So, if you want to become
22. 2:17superhuman, you need to hack that processor. Over  200 years ago, we figured out that your brain uses
23. 2:22electrical signals to send little messages. And  those messages travel all throughout your body
24. 2:27along...basically, think of them like a series  of superhighways. And as our tech improved,
25. 2:31we got better and better at reading those messages  as they tell your body what to do. So, in a way,
26. 2:36your brain is you. I sometimes imagine I'm trapped  up here and I'm operating this squishy meat robot
27. 2:42with little signals and then getting signals back  from my senses. And you can watch this happening
28. 2:47in this brain scan. If you try and move your  hand, what's lighting up here is actually a rush
29. 2:52of blood bringing oxygen to this one part of your  brain where it fuels neurons which fire electrical
30. 2:57and chemical signals to pass the message along, cell to cell, down your spine, out your arm until it
31. 3:01gets to your hand and says, "Hey, move." "When he's  moving, his left hand we'll see a signal in the
32. 3:06right side of the brain and the right hand  produces a signal on the left side." Cool. And you
33. 3:10see those folds? What I think is really cool is  if you could peel your skull back and look inside,
34. 3:17what you'd see is that your brain folds are  unique. You've got a brain fingerprint. What's
35. 3:23not unique, though, is where your brain processes  information. Different regions are responsible for
36. 3:28handling different tasks. So if you or I are  looking at something, we're both using this part.
37. 3:33Or speaking, this part. Or moving our hands,  that's this part. "This little region called the
38. 3:40hand knob." And so now we know that his hand knob  is right there. "Exactly." Your hand knob is inside
39. 3:45your motor cortex. And that motor cortex is the  key that unlocks brain-computer interfaces today.
40. 3:52"This is where we want to put our threads to record  motor intent." Intent. This is really important.
41. 3:58When I first heard about brain chips, I thought,  Oh my god, they're going to be able to read my
42. 4:02thoughts. But that's not how this tech actually  works. At least not yet. What they're actually
43. 4:08doing is reading your intention to move. Because  when your brain fires that signal down the highway
44. 4:14to move your hand, it feels instantaneous, but  it's not. It takes time for that signal to move
45. 4:20from point A, where intention starts in my brain,  to point B, where the action happens, in my hand.
46. 4:26And the brain-computer interface wants to read the  signal along the highway. So before the action,
47. 4:32but after the thought. So what's happening is not  read my brain and tell me my dog's name, but it
48. 4:38is, I'm trying to speak my dog's name, Thor. And  it can read those signals on the way to my mouth.
49. 4:45"So it's like neural lip reading essentially." Lip reading, not mind reading. The message is
50. 4:50already being sent. It's the job of the brain-computer interface to reroute where it's going.
51. 4:56"We initially had a wire version. So, this is a  standard USB-C connector that was going through
52. 5:01the skin." You plugged a USB-C into someone's head.  "That's right." "So, there was a moment where um we
53. 5:09actually plugged it to download data and it felt  like The Matrix." Yeah. "This version was 2018-2019."
54. 5:19Wow. That's way more recent than I thought. What  you can read from a brain chip depends on where
55. 5:23you place it. Not just the location in the brain,  but how exactly you get it in there. A few decades
56. 5:28ago, they could place electrodes on the outside  of your head, like this. And they still use this
57. 5:32today. But that's kind of like being in a blimp  flying over a stadium trying to figure out what
58. 5:38sort of game is being played below. You can sort  of see what's happening, but you're way too far
59. 5:42away to get specific information. "You can still  kind of get a sense of how the game is going
60. 5:46by the general boos and the cheers of the home  crowd, but you actually don't know what's really
61. 5:50happening in the game." To find out what's really  going on, we need to get inside the stadium. But
62. 5:55as you try and get that clearer signal, you're  trying to balance how much information you get,
63. 5:59your bandwidth versus invasiveness, because human  brain. The more specific game time information
64. 6:05you want, the closer to the playing field you need  to be. So, for example, another company, Synchron,
65. 6:10has a really groundbreaking option to avoid  neurosurgery altogether. What they do is they
66. 6:15send an implant through a vein in the neck that  sits on a blood vessel above the motor cortex. So,
67. 6:22now you're in the stadium. And importantly,  this isn't very invasive, but you're in the
68. 6:28nosebleeds. You can see the game better, but  you're still pretty far from the action. Let's get
69. 6:32closer. "You can actually put arrays on top of the  brain." That's the bet that Precision Neuroscience
70. 6:37is taking. "Precision, which is our company, uses a sensor array that has tiny little
71. 6:43platinum electrodes in a film that coats  the brain surface." Their device is as small as a
72. 6:49postage stamp. It needs to be inserted through a  small slit in the skull. That's brain surgery, so
73. 6:54it's more invasive, but now you're much closer to  the field. You can definitely see the score, and
74. 6:59you have a wide view. But there's another option.  The final approach requires going directly into
75. 7:06your brain tissue. "So, if you want to actually  drop the microphones into the huddle that the
76. 7:11players are having, you then need to actually go  into the brain." Like with this little device. It's
77. 7:17made up of metal and silicon. It looks a little  scary and yet it's been used in humans since 2004,
78. 7:23making it one of the oldest and most trusted brain-computer interfaces. It's called the Utah Array.
79. 7:29It can identify individual neurons firing,  making it extremely precise at reading those
80. 7:36little messages. It's like putting the microphone  inside the huddle. But to zoom out, all of these
81. 7:41different approaches come with different benefits  and trade-offs. The main trade-off with the Utah Array
82. 7:45is that it's very rigid and your brain is  not. "As your brain is moving, you know, this is
83. 7:52still causes scarring every time." Neuralink  wanted to put the microphone in the huddle,
84. 7:57but they wanted to do it in a way that would  move with your brain. So, they built ...this.
85. 8:02What am I looking at here? It's beautiful. "So,  what you're looking at, there are hundreds and
86. 8:07hundreds of those ultra thin, flexible wires that  we call threads." This is Neuralink's brain chip,
87. 8:15the N1 implant. They call it the Link. "The  part of this implant that goes into the brain
88. 8:22is only about 4 to 5 mm." And if you look at  each individual thread through a microscope,
89. 8:27you see those dots, those are each electrodes,  the microphones. "And these things record those
90. 8:34tiny electrical chatters from the neurons,  and then there's electronics to amplify them,
91. 8:39process them, you know, filter them at the the  frequency band that we're interested in." That's
92. 8:44over a thousand little microphones listening in to  the messages your brain is sending. Then it takes
93. 8:49those messages and sends it via Bluetooth to a  device. No more sticking a USB in your brain. The
94. 8:55trouble is your brain is amazing, but it's also a  hostile place. It doesn't want a computer chip in there.
95. 9:01We're about to go into the cleanroom where  they make the Link. And to do that, I need to go,
96. 9:06as they just said, "full bunny." But wait, we came  to Austin, Texas to see these brain computer
97. 9:10interfaces and to buy those tickets and all our  gear and everything else that we use on this show
98. 9:14I used...this. This is my real Mercury card. I  started my Mercury account in January 31st, 2022.
99. 9:23That's before we launched HUGE*. So everything  that we've made that you've enjoyed, Mercury
100. 9:27helped make that real. What I really appreciate  is Mercury understands that I don't need a place
101. 9:31just to store money. I need financial tools that  actually help me plan for a shoot like this and
102. 9:37make it happen. I need intuitive tools like all in  one place as opposed to across a million different
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106. 9:56you want to learn more about what they do, go to  mercury.com or check the link in my description.
107. 10:06Honestly, I think I feel my coolest in a cleanroom  outfit. The reason why we have to put all
108. 10:11of this on is not to protect us from the chips.  It's to protect the chips from us. "We dirty." We're so dirty.
109. 10:18One of the biggest problems  that they had to solve was how to power this
110. 10:22device because you really don't want it getting  too hot and then frying your brain tissue.
111. 10:26"You don't really care if your phone is heating while  it's on a charging pad. Whereas in in this case,
112. 10:32we do care." And you definitely can't risk it  leaking or something leaking into it, which means
113. 10:36you have to be really careful about how you build  and test these devices to make sure these are
114. 10:41as brain-friendly as possible. They assemble and  test them all, here. So, when all is said and done,
115. 10:46this entire implant is going to sit flush with  my skull, covered by skin, completely invisible
116. 10:53from the outside. Just to be clear, not on me.  Not today. But I will try and insert one into
117. 10:59someone else. Ready to implant a chip. "So, what  we're looking at is a 3D-printed head of Dan,
118. 11:07who you spoke to earlier." And the brain is based  on Dan's real brain scans. So, this is a highly
119. 11:14realistic model that we can practice on. And  when I say realistic, uncomfortably realistic.
120. 11:20Ouuuh. Anyway. "As you can see, each individual threads  are very tiny and flexible so that it would
121. 11:28be impossible for any person to be able to  handle them and manipulate them by hand."
122. 11:32This meant Neuralink had to do something  no other company had. They had to invent
123. 11:36a robot to implant the device. This is the  Next Gen R1 surgical robot. Its main job is to
124. 11:44put a computer chip in people's brains. And  this is the first time they're unveiling it too.
125. 11:48This semi-autonomous robot makes brain  surgery look easy. Special cameras map the
126. 11:53brain surface where the implant will  go. And then paired with extra sensors,
127. 11:57it updates the map in real time to avoid  the tiny blood vessels on the surface of
128. 12:02the brain. And then one by one, this extremely  fine needle grabs a thread of the implant and
129. 12:09sinks it into the brain. Each thread only takes  about 1.5 seconds to insert. Holy cow.
130. 12:20So, once I have a brain chip, what can I actually  do with it? Think about it. What would you want to
131. 12:28do? What is your optimistic sci-fi future for  yourself, personally, with a brain chip? First,
132. 12:34I'd say, controlling stuff with my mind. Like  I was a kid that loved Matilda. This would be
133. 12:42sending out messages in a way that allows me to  control other things, like a computer, or a robot.
134. 12:49They're already doing that. This is the neural lip  reading that companies are already getting really
135. 12:53good at. Hitching a ride on your neural highway to  get those outputs from your motor cortex with some
136. 12:58very cool use cases in real people. And then  the even more sci-fi future would be, putting
137. 13:05information back into my brain. Like that scene  in The Matrix where Neo downloads new skills. "I
138. 13:11know kung fu." Like getting totally new senses like  Geordi in Star Trek. Or, like having completely new
139. 13:17experiences, but putting new info in has remained  a big challenge. "I think we're very far from the
140. 13:24Keanu Reeves version, but it kind of gives you  a sense of where the arrow of progress might
141. 13:28be headed in some, you know, some future state." This wouldn't be like riding the highway. This
142. 13:34would be creating a new one. In The Matrix, he's having a full sensory experience. You'd
143. 13:39have to cover almost all of the brain and master  reading all of those outputs at once, all while
144. 13:45writing back a totally different reality than  your body is actually experiencing. Which means
145. 13:49inputting things into all parts of your brain  that experience smells and touch and everything
146. 13:54else that makes up your reality. A process  that's complicated by the fact that your brain
147. 13:59actually isn't a computer. Because a computer  separates out things like memory and processing,
148. 14:05but your brain intertwines them, locking together  all experiences into one reality. Our brains are
149. 14:12constantly learning and rewiring and reworking  based on all the experiences that you've ever
150. 14:17had. And if you're inputting really different  information like seeing in radar like Geordi,
151. 14:22what would your experience of that be? Would it  look like this or this or this? We don't really
152. 14:29know. That's not that it's impossible, just  there's so much left to figure out here. When
153. 14:34you realize just how much goes into making your  reality real, those sci-fi movies do move a bit
154. 14:41farther into the future because creating a new  highway is much harder than riding the one that
155. 14:47already exists. So, for now, scientists in this  field are mostly focusing on that first idea,
156. 14:53reading the electrical signals in your motor  cortex to control stuff with your mind. Today,
157. 14:59people can convert intentions into actual  speech, move cursors, play video games,
158. 15:05and even control robotic arms with brain implants.  And if we can get a better handle on those inputs,
159. 15:11we could dramatically improve those experiences.  "I'm sure you've seen the scene in Star Wars
160. 15:17where Luke Skywalker has his prosthetic  hand and then the little robot touches
161. 15:20each fingertip and he can feel it. So, that's  essentially what we'd like to be able to do."
162. 15:24Which for some is a life-changing thing. "And press  that top button." "Hello, how are you doing today?"
163. 15:35"You just got your voice back." I came into this  story thinking brain chips meant someone could
164. 15:41read my mind or put us into The Matrix or maybe  I'd get super-vision. But the truth is much more
165. 15:50real and much more optimistic, because right now  it's not about what those devices are adding to
166. 15:56that superhighway to give new experiences or  new senses. It's about what they're giving
167. 16:02back. Because the true use of brain-computer  interfaces today is building bridges when that
168. 16:07extremely important highway breaks. Imagine again  you see that cup falling off the table. Your brain
169. 16:13sends a signal to your hand to grab it, but  that message is blocked. That's the reality
170. 16:18of a person with paralysis. Now imagine you can  clearly think of what you want to say. Your brain
171. 16:23fires a signal to your mouth to move and say the  words, but that signal is blocked. This is often
172. 16:28the reality of a person living with ALS. Every  day, people are facing devastating diagnoses.
173. 16:34And this is the true immediate power of brain-computer interfaces. Scientists are reading the
174. 16:40motor cortex and sending those signals to sensors  in other body parts to help people with paralysis
175. 16:47walk again. Adding a brain-computer interface to  the visual cortex paired with glasses could input
176. 16:54information and restore vision in the blind. And  miraculously, they're reading the signals that
177. 16:58are telling the mouth to move and quite literally  giving people back their voice. "I'm talking to you
178. 17:05with my mind." And this is only the beginning. "And  I don't think the limits of what you can and can't
179. 17:10do are fully are fully understood. Still feels a  little bit magical and that is part of the whole
180. 17:15excitement of being involved in this." They're  not hijacking the highway. They're building a
181. 17:20bridge to help restore autonomy. To help create  a future where a doctor never has to say, "I'm
182. 17:27sorry. There's nothing else we can do." That's  the future where machines help keep us human.
183. 17:40If you want more optimistic science and tech stories, you can support our show by subscribing.