马斯克官宣：首名脑机接口人类，能意念操控鼠标！质疑…

　　美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)20日援引美国知名企业家埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)的话说，他旗下公司“神经连接(Neuralink)”脑机接口设备的首名人体移植对象恢复良好，该人士目前已能通过意念控制电脑鼠标。

　　据CNN报道，马斯克19日晚参加一场社交媒体平台对话活动时说，首名接受脑机接口设备移植的人士“似乎已经完全康复”，没有发现任何不良影响，且已能通过意念移动屏幕上的鼠标。

　　“神经连接”的研究人员正试图让其“通过意念尽可能多地按下鼠标按钮”，包括点击鼠标左右键、按住鼠标以拖动屏幕上的框等。

　　Elon Musk says Neuralink’s first human trial participant can control a computer mouse with their brain, nearly one month after having the company’s chip implanted.

　　“Progress is good, patient seems to have made a full recovery … and is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking,” Musk, who owns the controversial brain chip startup, said in a conversation in an X Spaces event Monday night.

　　“We’re trying to get as many button presses as possible from thinking, so that’s what we’re currently working on is — can we get left mouse, right mouse, mouse down, mouse up,” he said, “which is kind of needed if you want to click and drag something, you need mouse down and to hold on mouse down.”

　　不过，CNN指出，马斯克此次提供的细节较少，也未拿出任何有关手术结果的证据，因此目前尚难判断这次脑机接口设备移植代表了多大的科学进步。CNN还表示，其他致力于脑机接口的公司似乎比马斯克的“神经连接”清除了更多的技术障碍。

　　However, Musk has offered few details and no evidence about the outcome of the operation, so it’s not yet clear how significant of a scientific advancement the implantation represents.

　　Other companies working on brain-computer interfaces appear to have so far cleared more technological hurdles than Neuralink.

　　马斯克在今年1月底表示，专注于植入式脑机接口设备研发的“神经连接”在2023年获得美国食品和药品管理局(FDA)批准，研究其芯片植入物和手术工具在人类身上的安全性和功能后，已经完成了该公司首例脑机接口设备人体移植。

　　马斯克于1月底在社交媒体X上发布的消息称“第一个接受植入的人来自昨天恢复得很好。初步结果显示神经元突波检测很有前景。”

　　Musk said last month that the company had completed its first implantation surgery on a human test subject, after having received approval last year to study the safety and functionality of its chip implant and surgical tools on humans.

　　试验患者将通过手术将芯片植入大脑中控制移动意图的部分。该公司在9月份写道，这种由机器人安装的芯片将记录大脑信号，并将其发送到一个应用程序，最初的目标是“让人们能够仅用自己的思想来控制电脑光标或键盘”。

　　Trial patients will have a chip surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip, installed by a robot, will then record and send brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being “to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the company wrote in September.

　　CNN报道称，“神经连接”公司的目标是利用植入物将人脑与电脑连接起来，以帮助瘫痪的人控制智能手机或电脑，或者帮助盲人重见光明。与现有的脑机接口一样，该公司的植入物将收集大脑发出的电信号，并将其转换为行动。

　　Ultimately, Neuralink’s ambition is to use implants to connect human brains to computers to help, for example, paralyzed people to control smartphones or computers, or blind people to regain sight. Like existing brain-machine interfaces, the company’s implant would collect electrical signals sent out by the brain and interpret them as actions.

　　据马斯克介绍，公司的首款脑机接口产品名为“心灵感应(Telepathy)”，被植入该产品的人士只需通过意念就能控制手机、电脑，并通过它们控制其他设备。马斯克称，这款产品的首批用户将是肢体残障人士。

　　Musk said last month that the company’s first product would be called Telepathy, adding that its initial users will be people who have lost the use of their limbs.

　　“想象一下，如果斯蒂芬·霍金的沟通速度比打字员或拍卖师还快，这就是我们的目标，”马斯克在谈及其产品“心灵感应”时写道。

　　“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” he wrote.

　　CNN称，目前可以确定的是：短期内消费者不会广泛使用这项技术。在“神经连接”公司的大脑植入物进入更广泛的市场之前，他们还需要获得监管部门的批准。

　　One thing is clear: Consumers will not have widespread access to the technology anytime soon. Before Neuralink’s brain implants hit the broader market, they’ll need regulatory approval.

　　信息高度不透明，引发科学家不满

　　马斯克和“神经连接”关于第一例人体试验的声明并没有让神经科学家们感到意外。

　　马斯克很早之前就 “说过他要这么做”，美国布朗大学脑机接口专家约翰·多诺霍(John Donoghue)说，“马斯克已经以很多科学家的研究为基础，完成了很多初步工作，其中就包括我们团队从21世纪初期就开始做的工作。”

　　Monday’s announcement did not take neuroscientists by surprise. Musk, the world’s richest man, “said he was going to do it,” says John Donoghue, an expert in brain-computer interfaces at Brown University. “He had done the preliminary work, built on the shoulders of others, including what we did starting in the early 2000s.”

　　但目前关于这项临床试验的全部信息，几乎都来自于马斯克在社交媒体上的几句发言，这种高度不透明信息发布方式也让许多科学家感到不满。

　　美国生物伦理研究机构黑斯廷斯中心(The Hastings Center)的研究员发文警告说，马斯克的这种 "通过新闻发布科学信息的做法虽然越来越常见，但并不科学"。他们建议，不要依赖与研究成果有巨大经济利益关系的人作为唯一的信息来源。

　　Many ethicists raised their concerns about Elon Musk’s brain implants after he announced his first successful human trial. For example, the bioethics think tank Hastings Center warned that Musk’s “science by press release, while increasingly common, is not science.” The group warns against relying on entities with a significant financial stake in a research outcome.

　　宾夕法尼亚大学医学伦理学系主任亚瑟·卡普兰(Arthur Caplan)和该校伦理学教授乔纳森·莫雷诺(Jonathan Moreno)在该中心发布的博文中写道：“当花钱进行人体实验的人是唯一的信息来源，而实验结果与他有巨大的经济利益关系时，基本的伦理标准没有得到满足。”

　　"When the person paying for a human experiment with a huge financial stake in the outcome is the sole source of information, basic ethical standards have not been met," Arthur Caplan, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jonathan Moreno, an ethics professor at the university, wrote in the blog post published by the center.

　　美国责任医师协会(Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)的研究宣传部主任瑞安·梅克利(Ryan Merkley)评论称：马斯克总喜欢提出宏大的计划，但提供的细节少之又少。梅克利表示，这次宣布脑机芯片成功植入人体“就是一个典型例子”，马斯克并没有提供足够关于接受植入物的被试或其医疗状况的相关信息，而试验的“成功与否需要根据被试的健康状况的来确定。”

　　Musk has a habit of suggesting big things but providing little detail, notes Ryan Merkley, director of research advocacy at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “This is maybe the biggest example of that” because there’s no information available about the person who received the implant or their medical condition, Merkley points out. “Depending on the patient’s disease or disorder, success can look very different.”

　　对此，你怎么看?