Elon Musk, who already lives rent-free in many of our minds, just upgraded his status to official tenant. Musk’s brain chip startup Neuralink received the go-ahead to start in-human clinical trials, a monumental step for the ambitious company that’s already been plagued by federal probes. I imagine Musk added ‘put brain chips in humans’ onto his to-do list under ‘fix Twitter before 2024.’
In its announcement that the Food and Drug Administration granted it approval for in-human trials, Neuralink emphasized the significance of this milestone, stating that it represents a crucial initial stride towards leveraging Neuralink’s technology to “help many people.” In practice, the implanted chips transmit brain signals to computers, and Musk’s grand vision is to potentially help paralyzed individuals walk again and even cure brain diseases.
Neuralink is keeping the details of the FDA’s approval and the commencement of clinical trials under wraps, simply stating that the company is not yet recruiting for the clinical trial—which will surely attract a long line of volunteers from the Musk fandom. What’s more, the company is lagging behind the competition, while Musk is preoccupied with space rockets and Twitter.
Just last year, Fortune released a detailed report taking readers inside Neuralink and revealed that not only was Musk potentially overselling the capabilities of Neuralink’s technology (while rushing into human implantation as fast as possible), he was also rarely reachable as he juggled his time between Tesla and SpaceX.
His appearances at Neuralink’s offices were infrequent, Fortune wrote, with Musk breezing in once a week, then gradually downgrading to a mere twice-a-quarter cameo. And even then, his visits resembled the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it magic show—poof! He’d be gone in a matter of hours. Now, it remains to be seen how he’ll balance his responsibilities as Neuralink’s de facto CEO (it’s not even entirely clear who the official Neuralink CEO is) going into human trials, and his roles at Twitter and Tesla.
Perhaps perfectly timed, Musk dubbed former NBC ad executive Linda Yaccarino the new CEO of Twitter a few weeks ago. However, he intends to assume the positions of Twitter’s chief technology officer and executive chairman, propelled by his lofty vision to revolutionize the platform into the “everything app” he affectionately dubs “X.”
If only a year ago Musk was struggling to be present for his myriad ambitious and potentially deadly projects (not to mention for his 10 children), it’s difficult to see how things will get more organized and efficient by adding more balls to juggle. Clearly, these human trials will demand a lot of diligence and attention from Neuralink’s leadership. Even Musk’s biggest critics don’t want to see it fail—after all, curing the incurable is a feat I’m sure we all hope to witness in our lifetime. However, I am left wondering how quickly Musk will introduce verified Tesla owner checkmarks into Neuralinks. Oh, the synergies to be had!
More news below.
Programming note: We’re taking Monday off for Memorial Day. Data Sheet will be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line here.
Kylie Robison
Data Sheet’s daily news section was written and curated by Andrea Guzman.
NEWSWORTHY
Amazon deletes a climate goal. E-commerce giant Amazon aimed to make 50% of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030. But when Amazon decided its so-called “shipment zero” goal couldn’t be achieved until a decade later than originally planned, Amazon deleted its announcement and added the new goal to its broader climate pledge. In a statement to Insider, Amazon said having a separate, narrow goal that applied to only one part of the business didn’t make sense anymore, though it had previously said it was committed to seeing the goal through. Dropping a pledge on shipments signals it isn’t ready to make changes to the operations that power the fast delivery that incentivizes subscribers to be part of its Prime program, even as the vehicles and aircraft involved drive up its fossil fuel emissions.
Nvidia’s A.I.-fueled rise near the trillion dollar club. Nvidia’s market cap increased $184 billion Thursday, after company executives delivered a bullish outlook about sales of its A.I. chips. The single day gains are so high that they’ve only been topped by Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Fortune talked to investment research expert David Trainer who said that the graphics chipmaker needs to continue at top, unwavering speed to reward investors. So far, investors don't seem to be having any doubts: On Friday, Nvidia's stock rose another 2.6% in midday trading, bring its market cap just shy of a trillion dollars.
Microsoft recommends regulating advanced A.I. models. After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recommended new rules and government bodies for handling artificial general intelligence risks earlier this month, Microsoft is weighing in. The company said on Thursday that A.I. "foundation models" should be licensed and regulated by a new agency. The framework for that regulation could borrow a page from financial services companies that prevent money laundering and sanctions busting through “know your customer” frameworks, Microsoft said.
ON OUR FEED
"My autopilot almost killed me."
—A customer complaint about Tesla’s Full Self-Driving features, one of many reported across the U.S., Europe, and Asia from 2015 to March 2022. German news publication Handelsblatt had data with thousands of customer complaints leaked to it and found that customers flagged 2,400 self-acceleration issues and 1,500 braking problems such as “phantom stops.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Microsoft’s $69 billion Activision Blizzard deal is an expensive quagmire and distraction—and CEO Satya Nadella knows he’d be nuts to walk away, by Matt Weinberger
Airbnb CEO says the best advice he was ever given was ‘counterintuitive’ to what most people would tell you, by Chloe Taylor
How to use ChatGPT to help land a pay raise—and counter managers’ objections, by Orianna Rosa Royle
Tesla-Ford charging station deal is the news Tesla owners have been dreading, by Steve Mollman
Caroline Ellison: How a young math whiz with an appetite for risk became a major player in Sam Bankman-Fried’s corrupt crypto empire, by Courtney Rubin
BEFORE YOU GO
YouTube ends Stories feature. After seven years, YouTube is ending its Stories feature that allows users to share temporary posts that are erased after a set time. Users won’t be able to post Stories from June 26 on, and existing posts will be taken down after a week, the Verge reports.
After becoming Snapchat’s signature feature, Stories were copied by other social platforms like Instagram and Twitter’s now defunct “Fleets.” So, it hasn’t successfully replicated everywhere, and now YouTube is pushing its users to instead put attention to Shorts—which CEO Neal Mohan thinks could help with ad revenue troubles—and Community Posts, which lets users share polls, quizzes, and videos.
This is the web version of Data Sheet, a daily newsletter on the business of tech. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
