---
title: "Neuralink’s Demo Didn’t Impress Experts"
description: "On Friday, Elon Musk held a prototype product demo for Neuralink. But experts in the crowd remain unimpressed by his bold, unsubstantiated claims"
date: "2020-08-31"
modified: "2020-08-31"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neuralink-demo-impress-experts"
categories:
  - "Brain"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Neuroscience and Brain"
tags:
  - "brain computer interface"
  - "elon musk"
  - "neuralink"
  - "neuroscience"
---

# Neuralink’s Demo Didn’t Impress Experts

![On Friday, Elon Musk held a prototype product demo for Neuralink. But experts in the crowd remain unimpressed by his bold, unsubstantiated claims](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/neuralink-demo-impress-experts.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Neuralink\</em\>*

On Friday, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk [demonstrated the Link device](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-neuralink-live-pigs>), a prototype built by his secretive brain-computer interface company Neuralink.

The demo involved three live pigs, only one of which actually had a Neuralink device in its brain. Musk made a lot of bold claims during the event, [according to *MIT Technology Review*](<https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/30/1007786/elon-musks-neuralink-demo-update-neuroscience-theater/>), like Neuralink someday treating blindness and paralysis, as well as being used for entertainment or somehow connecting to an AI hivemind. Needless to say, many experts said demo amounted to a whole lot of fluff with very little substance.

https://twitter.com/ansdor/status/1299481020761362433

Musk, who previously made the baffling and insensitive claim that Neuralink could ["solve" Autism spectrum disorder,](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/elon-musk-neuralink-solve-autism-schizophrenia>) even went as far as saying that customers could use a Neuralink implant to play video games or summon their Tesla.

But there's a whole [lot of medical science](<https://massivesci.com/notes/neuralink-brain-machine-interface-fda-breakthrough-device/>) that needs to happen before the devices go into a single person's brain, *MIT Tech Review* reports. While Musk boasts about Neuralink's ability to [drill and implant tiny wires](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/people-begging-elon-musk-skull>) into the brain, neural implants tend to [kill surrounding brain cells](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/scientists-stick-needles-brains-curious-what-needles-brains>) and cause even further damage when they inevitably break down.

"I would say this is solid engineering but mediocre neuroscience," Newcastle University neuroscientist Andrew Jackson [told *BBC News*](<https://twitter.com/ruskin147/status/1299951803275055114>).

https://twitter.com/ruskin147/status/1299951803275055114

Aside from the lack of evidence that Neuralink can live up to any of Musk's medical claims, *MIT Tech Review* reports that Neuralink's grand pig demonstration showcased decades-old technology.

During the demo, a machine played noises as the link recorded brain signals, something that scientists have done — to humans — in the lab [since the 1920s](<https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/brain/scanning/eeg.html#:~:text=The%20pens%20trace%20the%20signals,humans%2C%20in%20the%20late%201920s.>).

**READ MORE:** [Elon Musk’s Neuralink is neuroscience theater](<https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/30/1007786/elon-musks-neuralink-demo-update-neuroscience-theater/>) \[*MIT Technology Review*\]

**More on Neuralink:** *[People Are Begging Elon Musk To Drill Holes in Their Skulls](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/people-begging-elon-musk-skull>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)