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Elon Musk鈥檚 brain-implant company Neuralink says it's received the US Food and Drug Administration鈥檚 approval to launch their first human tests - after earlier struggles to do so. The firm has been developing brain implants since 2016, hoping it will help people with intractable conditions such as paralysis and blindness.

It is not yet clear when the trial will begin. But it opens up new possibilities in the relationship between machines and humans - a vastly growing field of interfaces between the two.

Newsday heard more from Professor Nita Farahany, an expert on the ethical, legal, and social implications of emerging technology and author of: 'The Battle for your Brain'.

鈥淚n the longer term they hope鈥� to augment human capabilities. The people who would be enabled would be making a willing choice. The bigger ethical concern is how do you obtain fully-informed concern, for example with child participants when the trial ends鈥� is the implant forcibly taken out of their brains? The greater the advances in this field the less likely that the final frontier of our privacy will be retained.鈥�

(Pic: Illustration shows Neuralink logo and Elon Musk photo; Credit: Reuters)

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