Elon Musk is looking for a few good engineers to work for his brain-machine interface company, Neuralink. The future-focused CEO has made remarks on Twitter in recent days regarding the search, even providing a direct email to send resumes from qualified applicants.
“If you’ve solved hard problems with phones / wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power mgmt, etc), please consider working at engineering@neuralink.com,” he wrote. “Solving high-volume, high-reliability, low-cost production problems is especially valued.”
Over at Neuralink’s job board, the listings provide a bit more information about the specific positions available. Electrical, embedded systems, firmware, microfabrication, and software engineer titles look to be most relevant to Musk’s comments. However, given the cross-disciplinary nature of Neuralink’s mission, all positions likely contribute something to the wearable tech challenges cited. The most consistent feature desired in would-be applicants, per the job descriptions? “You find large challenges exciting and enjoy discovering and defining problems as much as solving them.”
If you’ve solved hard problems with phones / wearables (sealing, signal processing, inductive charging, power mgmt, etc), please consider working at engineering@neuralink.com
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2020
Musk began his involvement with Neuralink in 2016, and while its goals are lofty, only a few insights into the company’s work have been given since. A “white paper” was released last year along with a live-streamed presentation wherein viewers were treated to exciting revelations about the biotech company’s progress. In particular, a surgical robot for inserting electrodes into the brain is being developed along with flexible “threads” measuring between 4 and 6 μm or, about 1/3 the diameter of human hair, capable of transferring high volumes of data from the brain. Neuralink currently has four published patent applications that expand on the particulars of the technology presented.
Musk has teased even more advancements to be revealed soon. “Wait until you see the next version vs what was presented last year. It’s *awesome*,” he tweeted in February this year. “The profound impact of high bandwidth, high precision neural interfaces is underappreciated. Neuralink may have this in a human as soon as this year. Just needs to be unequivocally better than Utah Array, which is already in some humans & has severe drawbacks.”
The technology being developed isn’t really meant to just stir visions of humanoid dystopias – the goals are health focused. Neuralink could help combat brain-related health issues in individuals who are neurologically compromised, possibly restoring limb function, improving general movement, resolving issues with eyesight and hearing, and helping with diseases like Parkinson’s. There is also the possibility that the implementation of a Neuralink device into a brain could pave the way for hindering brain issues like epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, and strokes.
Musk’s presentation last year was primarily meant to inspire and invite interested individuals to join Neuralink, and this year’s update is scheduled for August 28th. Also announced alongside the date was a mission statement for the lofty-goaled biotech company: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
Seriously, though. Musk wants you to join Neuralink if you’ve got the experience they need.
