Musk: It's like 'talking to a tree'... AI communication without brain chips

Sky News – US billionaire Elon Musk said that brain chips being developed by his company, Neuralink, could become essential to help humans communicate more quickly with artificial intelligence, warning that without them, interaction between these intelligent systems and humans would be akin to “talking to a tree.”

The British Sky News network quoted Musk as saying that even in the best-case scenarios, where AI is highly benevolent and strives to do everything possible to assist humans, the speed of communication between humans and machines remains far too slow.

He noted that computers process data and communicate with humans at a massive rate of up to a trillion bits per second, which is vastly higher than the human rate of receiving, processing, and communicating data with machines, which does not exceed 100 bits per second.

He added that any means of increasing the speed of human communication would, in his view, improve compatibility between humans and machines, pointing out that the brain chips developed by his company are among the most prominent of these means.

Neuralink was founded in 2016 with the aim of developing brain chips and computer technologies that enable the brain to communicate directly with digital devices.

The company began human trials in 2024, stating that its chips have enabled people with paralysis to control digital devices and various tools through brain signals.

The chip works by capturing electrical activity in the brain, processing neural signals, and converting them into commands that digital devices can execute.