Elon Musk’s 'cyborg' company Neuralink is hiring new scientists as it prepares for human trials of its technology.
The company, which says its is “creating the future of brain interfaces”, has posted a job advertising for a clinical trial director.
Once hired, the clinical trial director will be “working with Neuralink’s first Clinical Trial participants,” according to the job posting.
Musk said last month that Neuralink’s aim is to implanted a first device in a human skull in 2022, revised from an earlier projection that trials would start in 2020.
Founded in 2017, Neuralink said last summer that its first “brain machine interface”, the N1 Link, is a 1024-channel device that, once implanted, “is completely invisible and transmits data via a wireless connection”.
The first indication this device is intended to help people with paralysis “regain their digital freedom” by allowing them to interact with their computers or smartphones “faster than someone using thumbs”, in Musk’s words.
Last July, the company raised US$205mln of ‘series C’ funding from investors including Google Ventures, Founders Fund and Gigafund, as well as group of Silicon Valley executives and entrepreneurs, including Sam Altman, who is CEO of another Musk-related venture, OpenAI, and another Musk pal, Ken Howery, co-founder of PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Founders Fund.
The funds from the round were said to be intended for taking this first product to market and accelerate the research and development of future products.