Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-07-22)

 TECHNOLOGY

25

THEBOTTOMLINE TheNeuralinkteamsaysit’saboutready
to test its brain implants on human patients, but first it’ll have to
persuade the FDA—and some patients.

AntonioNeri

○ ListentoBloombergBusinessweekWithCarolMassarandJasonKelly, weekdays

at2 p.m.to5 p.m.ETonBloombergRadio

BWTalks

Thesituationwe’rein

createsuncertainty,and

whenthereis uncertainty,

customerstendtostep

backa littlebit.Obviously,

thereneedstobea fair

approachtotrade,butwe

livein a globaleconomy,and

thesupplychainswe’veput

in placeoverthelastfew

decadesarecomplicated.

You’veacquireda lotofcompanies,

includinga recent$1.4billiondealfor

CrayInc.Is thereanotherpieceyouneed

toaddon?

Moreandmoreintelligence

comesthroughthe

securityanalyticsthat

makeinfrastructuremore

autonomous.Valuations

tendtobea littlebiterratic

oflate,butif it makes

sense,we’llconsiderit.

There’sa lotofmoneyouttherein the

world,especiallyin theprivateequity

market.Anybodyknockingonyourdoor

tomaybebuyyou?

No,notatall.We’refocused

onmakingthiscompany

relevantforthefuture,to

becomea trustedadviserto

ourcustomers.AndI haveto

say,we’rehavinga tonoffun.

○ SucceededMegWhitmanaschiefexecutiveofficerofHewlett

PackardEnterprisein 2018○ Startedin HewlettPackard’s

customerservicedepartmentin 1995○ OntheboardsofHPE

andhealthinsurerAnthemInc.

Since 2015, when HP split into Hewlett

Packard Enterprise (networking and

consulting) and HP Inc. (PCs and

printers), Neri has helped define HPE’s

scope, overseeing product development

and key acquisitions.

thoughts. Lately, a number of startups have tried to
find out. Companies such as CTRL-labs Corp. and
Kernel are working on external devices to detect
neurons’ firing patterns from outside a person’s
body and transmit them to a computer. The next
level up is figuring out how to safely insert a device
into the brain, where the neural signals are the
strongest and the process can go much faster. This
has proved tricky, to say the least.
Musk’s 100-person startup is counting on its
advances in materials and robotics to get there.
To insert the needed wires into the brain, it built
a robot about the size of a barbecue grill that uses
high-end optics to peer into holes drilled in the
skull and then place the wires precisely. Each wire
is one-quarter the width of a human hair and laced
with dozens of electrodes.
In a research paper released on July 16,
Neuralink said it’s performed at least 19 surgeries
on animals with its robots and successfully placed
the wires, which it calls “threads,” about 87% of
the time. In a secret Bay Area lab, a recent patient,
that brown-and-white rat, moved around a large,
rectangular plastic cage filled with wood shavings
and Parmesan cheese. A wire attached to a USB-C
port in its head transmitted its thoughts to a nearby
computer. The crackle of its neurons firing could be
heard over a speaker while software recorded and
analyzed its brain activity, measuring the strength
of brain spikes.
Of course, lots of treatments that work in rodents
have failed to make the leap to successful human
testing. While Musk confirmed at the press confer-
ence that Neuralink has tested its technology on
primates, he has yet to reveal much else about this
work. Even if the implants function as expected, the
company will need to show that it can do something
safe and useful with them by providing therapies—
something many scientists see as an open question.
Only when all that is done can other consumers
begin to opt for some light skull-drilling.
Neuralink’s electrodes, once placed in the holes
in a patient’s skull, are supposed to register brain
activity and relay it to a small device implanted
behind the ear that transmits the data to a com-
puter. Hodak says the first surgeries will take place
under general anesthesia, but he hopes local anes-
thetics will suffice in the future. “We will pain-
lessly laser-drill the holes into the skull, place the
threads, plug the hole with the sensor, and then
you go home,” he says. “It’ll basically be an experi-
ence like getting Lasik.” —Ashlee Vance

What challenges do you see at this

company as you look at how things

are rapidly changing and moving to

the cloud?

The cloud has to move

closer and closer to where

the data is being generated.

It’s cheaper to move the

cloud to where the data

is, not the data where the

cloud is, so we promised

last year to invest $4 billion

to develop that set of road

maps and technologies.

How much pressure are you feeling from

Google, Amazon.com, Microsoft, these

big companies that have really put their

stake in the cloud?

There’s no doubt that many

of the workloads have moved

to the public cloud. But big

customers realize it’s cheaper

for them to run things on their

premises in their data center

or in a sort of hybrid model.

We believe there is a ton of

opportunity to modernize

that infrastructure and help

customers decide what is the

right mix.

You guys have manufacturing in Mexico.

You’re in 172 countries. How do you view

the trade wars under way, and how might

they affect you?