Elon Musk’s company is about to implant a chip in the human brain to “make” superhumans

Neuralink is currently looking to hire a clinical trial director, a sign that the company’s long-term goal of implanting chips in the human brain is getting closer.

According to the job announcement, the position of test director will oversee human trials, the startup’s long-promised work on its product. The brain implant of Neuralink – which Musk says helped a monkey play video games with its thoughts – is intended to help treat patients with neurological disorders, such as paralysis.

The job description features a Fremont, California-based location, promising that the candidate will “work closely with the most innovative PhDs and leading engineers” as well as “with other participants Neuralink’s first clinical trial”. Job requirements indicate that the candidate must be able to run and build a “team that manages and is responsible for Neuralink’s clinical research activities” as well as regulatory compliance.

Last month, Musk told the Wall Street Journal that Neuralink hopes to implant his device into the human brain by 2022. However, he may have made overly optimistic predictions because in the past. In 2019, he said in a presentation that the device will be inside a human skull next year.

According to the billionaire, the new technology will help to seamlessly combine humans with computers, helping humans to “symbiotically” with AI.

To be tested on humans, the first thing that manufacturers need to pass is to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recognize it as a viable test. After the submission, review, and approval process with FDA based on feasibility testing, the next step will be significant device testing.

It’s unclear exactly where Neuralink is in the process. Representatives for Neuralink and the FDA did not respond to inquiries. In general, manufacturers hire trial directors early as they interact with the FDA, to help design trials in a way that maximizes their chances of getting FDA approval. Neuralink does not appear to have human trials posted on Clinicaltrials.gov (an important website for information on clinical trials). However, posting on that page may slow down the initial selection of patients.

Last year, another company working on brain-computer interfaces, Synchron, said the FDA had approved the feasibility of their study plan. A spokesman said Synchron is currently in the recruiting phase.

Neuralink is also hiring a clinical trial coordinator and several other positions based at its Fremont headquarters.

Refer to Bloomberg