ShinyShiny snippets: Elon Musk’s Neuralink to begin ‘brain chip’ trials

Image: Neuralink

Elon Musk said on Wednesday he expects a brain chip developed by his health tech company to begin human trials in the next six months. During a presentation by Musk’s company Neuralink, Musk gave updates on the company’s wireless brain chip. In addition to forecasting clinical trials, Musk said he plans to get one of the chips himself. “We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a device into a human,” said Musk, according to Reuters. Neuralink says it is developing brain-chip interfaces that could restore a person’s vision, even in those who were born blind. Guardian 

The Chinese government has ordered technology companies to hire more censors as its suppression of rare nationwide protests against strict Covid rules intensified. The Cyberspace Administration of China, which sets strict rules governing internet use, issued guidance to technology giants including Tencent and TikTok owner Bytedance on Thursday. It called on them to pay closer attention to information being shared about the protests, reported The Wall Street Journal. Officials were also instructed to tell Chinese search engines to block searches for virtual private networks (VPNs). Telegraph 

Kanye West has been suspended from Twitter and accused of “inciting violence” over offensive tweets – just two months after his last ban. The US rapper, who now goes by the name Ye, posted a series of erratic tweets – one of which appeared to show a symbol combining a swastika and a Jewish star. Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk was asked by one user to “fix Kanye”. West had “violated our rule against incitement to violence”, Musk tweeted. “Account will be suspended,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post. BBC

Kanye West will no longer purchase alternative messaging platform Parler, the company has announced. A statement from parent company Parlement Technologies said both parties had “mutually agreed” to terminate the intent of sale in mid-November. Parler has styled itself as an unbiased platform and has become popular with those banned from Twitter, also hosting prominent American conservative voices. Yahoo!


Toyota is leading a consortium to develop a prototype hydrogen fuel cell-powered version of its  Hilux pick-up at the company’s UK vehicle plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire. Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK has successfully secured UK Government funding for the project through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), an organisation supporting the development of cleaner technologies and new mobility concepts. The APC is a non-profit organisation working with the UK Government, the automotive industry and academic bodies to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies and support the transition to net-zero emission vehicles delivery. Tech Digest 

A mega-tsunami on Mars could have been triggered by an asteroid strike similar to the devastating blow that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The giant wave, measuring up to 250 metres in height, was created about 3.4 billion years ago by the impact of an asteroid or comet in a shallow ocean in the northern lowlands of the red planet, scientists believe. Until now, the location of the crater left by the asteroid was unclear. Sky News 

Chris Price