Creator of world-first brain chip says technology is at a tipping point'

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"Professor John Donoghue, who created the first brain chip called BrainGate at Brown University in Rhode Island, won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for engineering this month. Through clinical trials, the BrainGate team continues to make strides in using brain-computer interfaces to restore function lost to neurological injury or illness. One example, among a dozen other companies, is Elon Musk's Neuralink. The technology is based on Professor Donoghue's early work, which saw electrodes connected to a computer chip that can detect nerve signals in the brain."

Journalism covering reproductive rights, climate change and Big Tech relies on donations to send reporters to developing stories and to keep reporting accessible without paywalls. Support from readers funds investigations into topics such as political PAC finances and documentaries about American women fighting for reproductive rights. Decades after the first brain chip enabled a paralysed person to move a cursor and control a robotic arm, creators view the devices as nearing a tipping point for controlling speech or computers. Professor John Donoghue developed BrainGate and won the Queen Elizabeth Prize for engineering. Clinical trials are advancing restorative brain-computer interface functions, and companies such as Neuralink have produced trial patients who control computers with thought.

Read at www.independent.co.uk