It's the internet's equivalent of a note in a newsagent's window. The website has a single page. No fancy videos or graphics. No colours, even. Just black-and-white text offering jobs to "exceptional engineers and scientists". The task at hand: "Developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers." This is Neuralink — a company that wants to blend man and machine to make cyborgs. Its founder? Elon Musk. Why does Musk want to make cyborgs? To save mankind. He believes that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon outstrip us and that, as a result, AI will treat humanity, at best, like a pet. So, thinking big as usual, he decided that we mortals should develop "brain-machine interfaces" (BMIs) to meld seamlessly with AI, and so become superintelligent, too. If you can't beat 'em ... Naturally, it sounds mad. But Musk makes mad work, revolutionising both the car and space industries in a single decade. And BMIs are already improving human capabilities...

Subscribe now to unlock this article.

Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).

There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.

Cancel anytime.

Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.