Monkey appears to 'telepathically' type using Elon Musk's Neuralink

A monkey has appeared to "telepathically" communicate exactly what it wants while using Elon Musk's Neuralink brain implant.

This occurred at Neuralink's Show and Tell Fall 2022 event on Wednesday (30 November).

The event showcased monkeys with the brain implant doing many incredible tasks with the technology.

This is where Sake, the monkey in question, comes in.

In a video shared on Twitter by @cb_doge, a UI/UX designer at Dogecoin Foundation and Dogecoin Inc, Sake could seemingly type out a sentence about the kind of snack he wanted to munch on.

But Sake wasn't physically typing what he wanted to eat on the computer - he was using his mind power, thanks to the Neuralink invention.

At the moment, monkeys can't spell. So to communicate what he wanted, Sake moved a cursor across a virtual keyboard on the screen, so he could ask, "can I please have snacks."

As soon as that was typed, Sake waited as someone came over with a tablet, showing him a range of healthy snacks he could choose from - and he requested green grapes.

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At the event, Musk said Sake was "telepathic typing," but he wasn't "actually using a keyboard."

"He's moving the cursor with his mind to the highlighted key."

"Now, technically, he can't actually spell. So I don't wanna oversell this thing, because that's the next version," Musk said.

Although monkeys can't spell yet, this event shows that the Neuralink implant being used to control a computer with their mind also has a future with humans who could use it the same way.

Musk believes the brain implant could be a considerable aid for people who can't use a regular keyboard or mouse.

People online found the monkey presentation interesting, with some calling the technology the "future."

One person wrote: "FUTURE!!!!!!"

"This was the most amazing thing about the demo," another added.

A third wrote: "A whole new meaning to 'even a monkey can do it.'"

Someone else joked: "So am I the only human that's seen Planet of the Apes????"

In February 2022, the tech billionaire and CEO defended Neuralink against animal rights organisations who accused the company of putting the animals through "extreme suffering" during the testing.

The company didn't deny euthanising animals, but they denied the "extreme suffering" claims as they are "committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible."

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