Elon Musk claims that his brainchip patients are soon going to 'outperform pro gamers'. Then he takes a big puff and says "let's give people Superpowers"

Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, has claimed that humans who have his Neuralink brain chips installed will be able to perform 360 noscopes as well as professionals within two years. Musk made some wild claims about the technology in an episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast (full transcript). He also said that Neuralink would have to speed up the human brains to ensure that AI didn't get bored.

Musk says his idea about "data rate" came to him while he was thinking of AI safety and possible barriers to a human-AI convergence. Musk says that the low data rate of human beings, especially our slow production rate, would reduce the link between humans with computers. He then adds an unbelievable coda, "Let's just say you look at a plant or whatever and hey, hey, it's not really saying much."

The human brain is a computer that is unsurpassed by any Silicon Valley company. We barely comprehend its complexity and abilities. Comparing it to plants... not for me.

Musk insists that a major goal of his is to increase the "output rates" of humans. Musk believes that the speed at which our brains send signals to the chip could be increased by "three, six, or even more orders of magnitude." Musk agrees with Fridman that "hundreds and millions" of people will have Neuralinks in "the next two decades".

Musk's words sound like psychological torture. Musk muses, "Let's imagine you could upload your memories so you wouldn't forget memories," a scenario which sounds like it would drive anyone insane. Musk replies "yes, we would be different." When asked if this will change the human experience. It's not that far away. Maybe 10-15 years.

Musk brings up gaming while discussing efficiency. This is because most games are characterized by clear metrics and win conditions, making them easy to compare. In May, Neuralink released an update on Noland Arbaugh who was the first patient to receive the chip. He noted his growing skills with the brain computer interface in videogames. "I'm winning my friends in games I shouldn't be beating them in as a quadriplegic."

Musk says, "We are pretty confident that maybe within the next two years, someone with a Neuralink Implant will be able outperform a professional gamer." This was in reference to the previous discussion about speeding up the brain. "Because reaction time would be quicker."

In the midst of all the cyber-promises it is worth remembering that Neuralink has a great deal of medical potential and can be beneficial to certain people. The company is currently focusing on the medical aspect and what it might be able do about damaged neurones, with a goal to cure certain conditions that are not curable by current medicine.

Musk says that if patients have damaged neurons in their neck or spinal cord (as in the cases of our first two patients), then the first thing to do is fix the fundamental neuron damage. This can be in the spinal cord, the neck or the brain. "Our second product, Blindsight, is designed to help people who have lost their eyes, optic nerves, or are completely blind to be able see again by triggering the neurons within the visual cortex."

Musk can't help but stray off topic, speculating that Neuralink might one day "solve schizophrenia" and that Blindsight may be used to enhance human vision (I think you would get a higher resolution than your eyes... You could see ultraviolets, infrareds, eagle-vision, whatever you wanted"). Musk is convinced that this technology has the potential to make a huge positive contribution to medicine. However, it's his science fiction stuff which gets him going.

Musk says that if thousands of people have been using the technology for years, and the risk is minimal at that point, you might consider aiming for augmentation. "We're not only aiming to give normal humans the same communication data rate as we do. We want to give quadriplegics, or people who have lost the connection between the brain and the body, a higher communication data rate than normal humans. Why not? "Let's give people superpowers."

Musk has many technological interests. He is also deeply involved in the AI Wars and is currently embroiled with a massive lawsuit against OpenAI. SpaceX, Starlink and the Tesla Bots are also among Musk's interests. He is also obsessed with the platform he bought for $45 billion. Imagine if one day Neuralink could speed up Musk's mind, and we would get six times as many terrible memes every day.