On this planet of brain-computer interfaces, it may appear as if one firm sucks up all of the oxygen within the room. Final month, Neuralink posted a video to X displaying the primary human topic to obtain its mind implant, which will likely be named Telepathy. The recipient, a 29-year-old man who’s paralyzed from the shoulders down, performed laptop chess, transferring the cursor round along with his thoughts.

Neuralink’s announcement of a first-in-human trial made a giant splash not due to what the person was capable of accomplish—scientists demonstrated utilizing a mind implant to maneuver a cursor in 2006—however as a result of the know-how is so superior.

However Neuralink isn’t the one firm creating brain-computer interfaces to assist individuals who have misplaced the power to maneuver or communicate. Learn on to check out among the firms creating mind chips, their progress, and their completely different approaches to the know-how.

—Cassandra Willyard

This story is from The Checkup, our weekly well being and biotech publication. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Thursday.

It’s time to retire the time period “consumer”

Individuals have been known as “customers” for a very long time; it’s a sensible shorthand enforced by executives, founders, operators, engineers, and buyers advert infinitum.

Typically, it’s the proper phrase to explain individuals who use software program: a consumer is greater than only a buyer or a client. Generally a consumer isn’t even an individual; company bots are recognized to run accounts on Instagram and different social media platforms, for instance.

However “customers” can be unspecific sufficient to refer to simply about everybody. It may accommodate nearly any huge concept or long-term imaginative and prescient. We use—and are utilized by—computer systems and platforms and corporations. Although “consumer” appears to explain a relationship that’s deeply transactional, most of the technological relationships by which an individual can be thought of a consumer are literally fairly private. That being the case, is “consumer” nonetheless related? Learn the complete story.

—Taylor Majewski

This story is from the subsequent journal concern of MIT Know-how Evaluation, set to go dwell on April 24. For those who don’t already, enroll now to get a duplicate when it lands.