Monkey plays video game with its mind using Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology
- The start-up uploaded a video showing a macaque monkey named ‘Pager’ playing the video game Pong using thought alone
- Musk has long contended that merging minds with machines is vital if people are going to avoid being outpaced by artificial intelligence
Elon Musk’s start-up devoted to meshing brains with computers moved closer to its dream on Friday, having got a monkey to play the video game Pong using only its mind.
Musk has long contended that merging minds with machines is vital if people are going to avoid being outpaced by artificial intelligence.
A video posted on YouTube by the entrepreneur’s Neuralink start-up showed a macaque monkey named “Pager” playing Pong by essentially using thought to move paddles that bounce digital balls back and forth on screen.
“To control his paddle, Pager simply thinks about moving his hand up or down,” says a voice narrating the video. “As you can see, Pager is amazingly good at MindPong.”
Neuralink devices were implanted on two sides of Pager’s brain to sense neuron activity, then the monkey played the game for a few minutes using a joystick to let the software figure out the signals associated with hand movements.
After a few minutes, the “decoder” programme figured out what neuron signals to look for and the joystick was no longer needed for Pager to play the game.