Frankly, nothing surprises us anymore in 2021.

Elon Musk has been busy recently, tweeting about stocks and shares and dogecoin, but he’s found the time for another weird project.

Musk has been working on his ‘brain chip start-up’ called Neuralink.

He is now claiming to have successfully put an implant into a monkey.

This new implant reportedly allows the monkey to play video games.

Elon confirmed the news yesterday, that the wireless implant has been placed in its skull. The monkey has successfully been ‘playing video games with his mind’.

He confirmed the news during an appearance on Clubhouse, the latest invite-only social media app which is based around audio conversations instead of text posts.
As well as the Neuralink update, Musk also talked about several of his other projects.
The chat was so popular, he managed to crash Clubhouse in the process.
Musk insisted the monkey is OK, saying ‘he’s a happy monkey.’
He stressed: “we have the nicest monkey facilities in the world. We want them to play mind-Pong with each other,’ according to Bloomberg
Animal testing is general frowned upon by many, so Musk must know it’s going to upset a lot of people.

The monkey isn’t the first animal they’ve done this to either. Last summer, Musk revealed a pig named Gertrude had been implanted with a brain chip.

Gertrude’s implant was supposedly just proving it’s possible to place an implant in an animal without harming it.

If these monkey claims are true, it could show that Neuralink’s implants can be used to alter brain function.

Musk hopes his Neuralink tech will go further than game-playing monkeys. His dream is that the chips, in future,  will help to reduce or even reverse the impact of neurological and spinal injuries.

He also describes the tech as ‘like a Fitbit in your skull’.

No official studies or reports have backed up Neuralink’s animal experiments.

We only have Musk’s word that these tests have taken place, but he claims videos showing the monkey playing the computer games with the chip would be released in the coming weeks.

Do you think it’s right that Musk is testing these chips on animals? Is it the future or just cruelty?
Images via Alamy