Elon Musk’s brain implant start-up, Neuralink, is planning to launch a U.S. clinical trial next month for a device that it claims can translate thoughts into text. According to Neuralink’s president and co-founder, Seo Dong-jin, the company has received an “investigational device exemption” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This exemption allows the company to test unapproved products on humans ahead of a full trial. “If you’re imagining saying something, we would be able to pick that up,” Seo said in a presentation in Seoul, South Korea.
This upcoming trial is the first FDA-cleared study specifically aimed at decoding speech from brain waves, providing a faster and more intuitive method of communication for patients with severe speech or motor impairments. Neuralink has been expanding its human testing and recently confirmed that 12 people now have its N1 brain implant, a fourfold increase since February 2025. The N1 implant allows people to control a computer cursor with their thoughts, enabling them to send emails or type messages.
A Vision for Consumer Technology
While the immediate focus of the trial is on patients with medical needs, Neuralink has a broader vision. Seo stated that the company aims to implant the device in a healthy person by 2030, with it eventually becoming a commercially available consumer technology. Seo envisions a future where this device would allow people to interact with large language models (LLMs) without using a keyboard or voice input. The output from the models would then be fed back to the user via their AirPods, effectively “closing the loop,” in his words.
The Broader Brain-to-Text Landscape
Neuralink is not alone in this field. Other companies and research institutions are also working on brain-to-text interfaces. In August 2025, researchers at Stanford claimed they could, in principle, decode the brain’s “inner speech,” or a person’s silent monologue. However, they admitted that the technology did not work as well for “inner speech” as it did for “attempted speech,” where a person with a vocal disability tries to speak.
In March, Meta announced it had created a brain-to-text technology that could predict what a typist was thinking with up to 80% accuracy. However, this system is unlikely to ever see a commercial release. It requires very specific in-lab circumstances to work, costs millions of dollars, and weighs half a ton. It would also still require a user to physically type the words, even though the system could detect them without them looking at the screen or their fingers.
Author’s Opinion
Neuralink’s pursuit of a thought-to-text device, while often sounding like science fiction, could have profound implications. The successful development of this technology would be a game-changer for people with neurodegenerative diseases and spinal injuries, offering them a new path to communication and autonomy. However, the ambition to make this a commercially available consumer product raises significant ethical questions about privacy, control, and the future of human identity. This project represents a bold step towards a future where the line between thought and action, and between human and machine, is fundamentally redrawn, and the potential societal impact is as vast as it is unpredictable.
Featured image credit: Heute
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