---
title: "Grimes Using Custom Brain Interface From Elon Musk Competitor"
description: "Claire \"Grimes\" Boucher wanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) for her birthday — and one of Neuralink's apparent competitors was happy to comply."
date: "2023-03-23"
modified: "2023-03-23"
authors:
  - name: "Noor Al-Sibai"
    job_title: "Senior Staff Writer"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/grimes-brain-interface-musk-competitor"
categories:
  - "Brain"
  - "Brain Implants"
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "BCI"
  - "grimes"
  - "neuralink"
  - "the digest"
---

# Grimes Using Custom Brain Interface From Elon Musk Competitor

![Claire "Grimes" Boucher wanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) for her birthday — and one of Neuralink's apparent competitors was happy to comply.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/grimes-brain-interface-musk-competitor.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.gettyimages.com/search/photographer?photographer=Vivien%20Killilea" target="\_blank"\>Vivien Killilea / Stringer via Getty / Futurism\</a\>\</em\>*

## Brain Drain

Famed musician and former Elon Musk boo Claire "Grimes" Boucher wanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) for her birthday — and one of Neuralink's apparent competitors was happy to comply.

After [Grimes tweeted about](<https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1636871679522775041>) getting a "non invasive brain computer interface" for her birthday, AJ Keller, the CEO of the startup Neurosity, [confirmed in an interview with *Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/grimes-birthday-brain-gadget-neurosity-elon-musk-neuralink-competitor-2023-3>) that his firm had indeed made a custom brain gadget for the "Kill V. Maim" singer.

While a tech company sending a nerdy sci-fi celebrity fan a gadget wouldn't really be news on its own, the fact that Grimes is the mother to two of Musk's children and is seemingly on pretty acrimonious terms with the Canadian-South African billionaire, who owns perhaps the most famous and one of the most controversial BCI companies in the world, makes this story incredibly juicy.

In the replies to her tweet, Grimes did pay lip service to her ex's BCI company, which plans to implant computer chips into actual human skulls — if they ever get [government approval](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/regulators-rejected-elon-musk-application-brain-chips-humans>) and can stop [killing monkeys with their experiments](<https://futurism.com/neuralink-federal-investigation>), that is.

When [asked by another user](<https://twitter.com/angelfir_e/status/1636873190700900354>) if the headset was "like an external \[N\]euralink," [Boucher responded](<https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1636874137938563072>) that Neurosity's BCI is "less advanced" because the company is "younger and whatnot," and doesn't require surgery the way Musk's BCI does.

"U can move the mouse on the computer and stuff," she added. "Early days but insanely cool. Non surgical options is \[sic\] a whole vibe, and so sci fi!"

## Cursor Sailor

Although Neurosity's headsets are meant to be EEG monitors to [help people focus and perform better](<https://neurosity.co/crown>), it appears, as *Insider* notes, that the company's developers have taken their offerings into more advanced territory, at least experimentally.

In both her responses and a since-deleted tweet, Grimes suggested that she was able to use her roughly $1,000 headset, known as "the Crown," to control a computer mouse using her brain. *Futurism* has reached out to Neurosity to corroborate that claim, given that it's pretty far outside the realm of the company's EEG-monitoring use case.

In his interview with *Insider*, Keller, the Neurosity CEO, said that he's not angling to compete with Neuralink.

"It's like the difference between a microscope and a telescope," he said. "Both do imaging, but both are doing totally different types of imaging."

Musk, for his part, still appears to be [down bad](<https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1636887876234272770>) for Grimes.

**More on BCIs:** [*Legal Expert Proposes "Cognitive Liberty" to Avoid Corporate Brain Spying*](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/legal-expert-brain-computer-interface-spying>)

## Author
At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/noorfromfuturism.bsky.social>)