New brain implants poised to help people with disabilities
Several firms are now set to take brain-computer interface, or BCI, from the experimental stage to commercial usage more than 20 years after researchers first demonstrated that a person could move a computer cursor with their thoughts.
Implanted BCIs work by detecting and decoding signals coming from areas of the brain that control movement or speech. These signals indicate when a person is trying to move a limb or speak a word.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk's Neuralink is one of the most talked about players in the BCI field, but the first product to reach the market could possibly come from competitors BlackRock and Neurotech.
The first BCI users are likely to be people living with paralysis from a spinal injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Early products will allow them to control a computer cursor or generate artificial speech.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
38 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Is Tesla screwed?
Elon Musk's anger over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was evident this week as the world's richest man took to X, the social media platform he owns, to lambast President Donald Trump's signature legislation. But there's plenty of anger from investors at the performance of his own electric vehicle company, Tesla, which again posted weak delivery results for its electric vehicles. The company delivered just over 384,000 vehicles in the second quarter, only marginally better than the previous three months, which were the company's worst in more than two years. Overall, the number of cars Tesla delivered in April, May, and June this year was down 13% from the year before. It caps a difficult time for Musk, whose personal and business brands have taken a tumble. The proportion of people who dislike the EV company has more than doubled in the last two years, according to data from YouGov, which tracks public sentiment about the firm. In all, 35.2% of Americans have a negative view of Tesla, up from just 16.5% two years earlier, and nearly as many as those who now hold a positive view of the company. That correlates with Musk's personal popularity in the same YouGov surveys, with people moving from being on the fence about him to reporting actively disliking him. And his continued engagement in U.S. politics is only turning people against him more, analysts believe. 'Elon Musk's frustration boiled over with the latest Senate budget deficit, reneging on his promise to focus more on his businesses,' write Jed Dorsheimer and Mark Shooter, analysts at William Blair. 'We only see downside from these actions, and would prefer effort to be channeled towards the robotaxi rollout at this critical juncture.' (Tesla did not immediately respond to Fast Company 's request for comment.) That said, there are green shoots ahead. The number of deliveries this last quarter wasn't quite as bad as William Blair analysts feared. In fact, it beat their estimate by 8%. 'We expect the stock to react positively as investors feared worse,' Dorsheimer and Shooter said. The issue Tesla faces isn't with brand perception among its own customers, but with trying to attract new ones, suggest analysts at Forrester. 'Tesla is a compelling case study in the divergence between customer experience and brand perception,' explains Keith Johnston, group research director at Forrester. 'While Tesla remains top-of-mind for many noncustomers, boasting above-average salience, they are less likely to perceive it as trustworthy, and even less inclined to buy it.' It's a major issue, agrees Jay Nagley, a consultant at Redspy Automotive Consultancy. 'You can still disapprove of a company and buy its products, because nobody else knows you're doing it,' he says. 'You might publicly disapprove of McDonald's and go and have a crafty burger from time to time, but you can't do that with Tesla. It's sitting in your driveway. You get out of it. Your friends see you in it all the time. So it's a constant source of potential awkwardness and embarrassment.' This comes on top of Tesla facing significant challenges in China, which has traditionally been one of its biggest markets. In the first half of 2025, China accounted for nearly half of Tesla's global deliveries, with Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory alone producing almost 50% of all Tesla vehicles delivered worldwide. The problem is Tesla faces growing competition from Chinese automakers like BYD, which reported one million EV sales in the first half of 2025 compared to Tesla's 721,000. BYD's vehicles, often cheaper and equipped with advanced features like a five-minute charging system, are eroding Tesla's market share, particularly in China. 'While the company has seen significant weakness in China in previous quarters given the rising competitive landscape across EVs, Tesla saw a rebound in June with sales increasing for the first time in eight months reflecting higher demand for its updated Model Y as deliveries in the region are starting to slowly turn a corner,' says Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities. Ives remains bullish on Tesla and Musk's ability to turn the ship around. 'If Musk continues to lead and remain in the driver's seat, we believe Tesla is on a path to an accelerated growth path over the coming years with deliveries expected to ramp in the back-half of 2025 following the Model Y refresh cycle,' he says. The company plans to release a lower-cost Model Y in the second half of the year. That would be important because Tesla has traditionally been slow at updating its models, something Nagley attributes to Musk's naiveté about how the auto industry operates. But even if the Model Y succeeds, there's a Trump-shaped obstacle in the way to Tesla's success going forward. The U.S. president is eliminating the EV tax credit that helped bolster Tesla's sales, which tilts the scales back in favor of gas-powered cars, which are cheaper than electric alternatives. And tariffs from China on battery materials will push Tesla costs up further. 'While Musk's departure from DOGE brought back Tesla's most important asset,' Ives says, 'the feud between Musk and Trump brings further frustration to investors with more fear around the Trump administration becoming more hawkish around government-related spending tied to Tesla, especially the autonomous future with AV regulations key for Robotaxis and Cybercabs.' The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
Fox News
39 minutes ago
- Fox News
GOP lawmakers rebuke Elon Musk's primary threats, say Trump's legislation 'something we've got to do'
As lawmakers march toward a vote on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," House Republicans aren't too worried about primary threats from tech billionaire Elon Musk. Musk, who once served as the head of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been highly critical of the president's legislative agenda. He had remained quiet about the bill until earlier this week when Senate Republicans were making strides to pass it. "We don't take threats lightly up here," Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital. "And, you know, Elon, we appreciate all the work he did with DOGE — and he did some fine work, some great work — but at the same time, this is something we've got to do." Musk again returned to bemoan Republicans for supporting the legislative behemoth for its staggering $3.3 trillion price tag and the impact it would have on the nation's already massive, $37 trillion debt. He went so far as to threaten to back primary challengers against any Republican that voted for the bill. It wouldn't be the first time that Musk has been involved — he dumped millions into Trump's campaign last year. Now, House Republicans are gearing up to vote after hours of delays, negotiations and a near record-breaking amount of open floor time in the lower chamber. Additionally, many don't care about Musk's threats. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mi., told Fox News Digital that he was focused on doing the best "we could do, which is, frankly, better than what Elon Musk did." "I don't worry about Elon Musk," he said. "I do know that DOGE found some good things that we needed to remedy in this government. But the $2 trillion that Elon said he was going to find, he didn't." Musk took particular issue with the Senate's changes to the bill, too, and slammed it for adding trillions to the deficit. Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., noted that the bill cuts north of $1.5 trillion in an effort to help offset the cost of extending or making permanent Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. "I appreciate Mr. Musk's motivation," he told Fox News Digital. "I appreciate his focus on debt reduction, and I hope he'll take a step back and realize that we're still all on the same team here." While the Senate's changes, particularly to Medicaid and a reduction in the rollback of green energy subsidies from former President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, among other cost-driving issues, gave fiscal hawks in the House heartburn, House Republican leadership is confident that the bill will pass.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
xAI gets permits for 15 natural gas generators at Memphis data center
County regulators yesterday granted xAI permits to operate 15 natural gas turbines at its data center outside Memphis, despite the threat of a lawsuit. Elon Musk's AI company has been operating as many as 35 generators without permits, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) said. Altogether, they're capable of producing up to 421 megawatts of electricity. The legal organization has said that it will sue xAI for violations of the Clean Air Act on behalf of the NAACP. The company recently raised $10 billion, split evenly between debt and equity. The permit issued by the Shelby County Health Department says that xAI can operate 15 Solar SMT-130 generators with certain emissions controls, which can generate up to 247 megawatts. The company has already been operating eight of the same model without permits, according to the SELC, though the group added that the ones in operation do have the appropriate pollution controls. Under the conditions of the permit, xAI will be still allowed to emit significant amounts of pollution on a rolling 12-month basis, including 87 tons of smog-forming NOx, 94 tons of carbon monoxide, 85 tons of volatile organic compounds, 73 tons of particulate pollution, and nearly 14 tons of hazardous air pollutants, including 9.8 tons of formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. The company is required to keep its own emissions records. Before the permit was issued, a Memphis community group said that it had $250,000 in funds to pay for an independent air quality study. The City of Memphis performed its own air quality testing in June, though the SELC raised several concerns about the way the tests were carried out. The testing contractor did not measure ozone levels, the SELC noted, and the tests were done on days when the wind was blowing xAI's pollution away from the two closest testing sites. The contractor also placed the testing equipment either directly against or in close proximity to buildings, which can interfere with results. Previously, the health department claimed that it did not have the authority to permit 'mobile' gas-burning turbines if they were in operation for less than 364 days, saying that under those circumstances, the EPA was the relevant regulator. The SELC said that the interpretation of the law was 'incorrect' and the letter justifying inaction was 'without any legal analysis.' Sign in to access your portfolio
