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Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain-machine interface is turning sci-fi into reality
Besides giving the world the option to switch to Tesla emissions-free electric cars and hopes of sending humans to Mars and beyond, Elon Musk also dreams of giving humans symbiosis with artificial intelligence through an implantable brain-machine interface created by Neuralink, a company he founded in 2016.
Neuralink is working on improving the basic structures of high-density Utah Array, a tiny chip that has become the industry benchmark for recording large populations of neurons. Dr. Richard Norman from the University of Utah invented the chip in 1997, which acts as an ultra-thin, flexible, and biocompatible polymer that connects the human brain to a tiny chip. During an event last year, Neurallink explained that the implant can be placed behind the ear and can interpret brain signals. Musk’s neural tech company has also invented a robot that can sew the implant to the brain with better precision than any human surgeon.
Wait until you see the next version vs what was presented last year. It’s *awesome*.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2020
So far, the brain-machine interface by Neuralink has reportedly helped a primate communicate with a computer interface. There are plans to install a prototype this year into a human. According to Musk, they are still on track to do this.
“It will ultimately be used to make up for entire lost sections of the brain due to stroke/accident/congenital. Don’t want to get too excited, but the potential is truly transformational for restoring brain & motor functions. There is no other way to do it imo,” Musk also wrote on Twitter.
The possibilities for Neuralink’s implant are endless. The symbiosis between humans and AI will be a long shot but Neuralink’s implantable device can pave the way for medical advancements that can help people with chronic neurological problems. Possible medical uses for Neuralink’s device in the future include controlling devices, restoring sensation, and synthetic speech.
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CONTROLLING DEVICES
The brain is a complex network of nerves that uses impulses to sense the outside world and to control the human body. Neuralink will use these signals and amplify them so a patient can use them to be more functional. For example, someone with paralyzed upper extremity due to a stroke can have a brain-machine interface on the center of the brain that controls movements of the arm and hands which will help patients feed, dress, and generally function on their own.
Likewise, for someone who has an amputated limb, the Neuralink brain-machine interface will be able to communicate with a robotic arm to help someone use an artificial hand to write or use a computer. It can also be perfect for someone who needs to control a robotic leg to prop one up to stand without the help of anyone.
With a smart home setup, a paralyzed person who cannot clearly or is unable to speak and move can simply command a computer to dim the lights, turn on the air conditioner, or call someone if they need urgent attention.
While it might be a very long shot, these brain-machine interfaces interacting with other future technologies can also serve as bridges to parts of the body that are medically “disconnected”. For example, a patient with spinal cord injury has severed connections between the brain and parts of their body corresponding to the level their spinal cord was injured. The Neuralink implant can play pseudo stem cells that will provide the artificial connection so one can better function. Same for someone with multiple sclerosis whose nerves basically lose the sheath that makes them transmit electrical signals optimally.
“RESTORE” SENSATION
Just like how Neuralink can be exploited to help the brain control movement of a robotic arm, it is highly possible to tap into the sensory cortex of the brain. Sensation allows better manipulation of one’s environment and should be very helpful even when using robotic arms. One can tap the signals of the brain, send it to the brain-machine implant and to the robotic hand, for example, and back. If one grabs a glass of water, it can easily control the movement through space because the patient knows its shape, weight, texture, temperature, among other factors.
The Neuralink team also aims to use the brain-machine interface to “give back” one’s vision by tapping into the visual center of the brain.
SYNTHETIC SPEECH
With its ability to tap into specific signals of the brain, Neuralink also has the potential to create synthetic speech for people who are paralyzed or those with neurological conditions that do not allow them to speak.
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These are just some of the things we can see Neuralink will be used for in the future. While all these seem to be fantastical, according to Neuralink, what they’re doing is not pulled from thin air but based on decades of neurological foundation.
Ultimately, with the dream of human-AI symbiosis, as more technologies develop, the use for Neuralink’s brain-machine implant will evolve. Elon Musk mentioned before that perhaps one day, it will be used for telepathic communication between humans or perhaps even drive a Tesla. Or perhaps, in the future, one can upgrade one’s knowledge and download terabytes of information with a blink of an eye through Starlink.
SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.
The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.
Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.
The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.
As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
SpaceX released new footage of Starship in space captured by the Starlink satellites it deployed.
SpaceX released a new video Friday evening showing Starship from an angle showcased by its own Starlink satellites, watching the rocket drift away in orbit.
The 65 second clip, posted on X, stitches together footage from four cameras mounted on a single Starlink V3 satellite. It opens with a close view of Starship’s 171 foot upper stage, still catching sunlight, then pulls back as the two spacecraft separate.
The footage comes from Starship’s 13th flight test, which launched July 24 from Starbase after a scrubbed attempt and an abort caused by an engine issue the week before. When Flight 13 finally flew, it carried the first batch of functional Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever deployed, twenty of them, with six equipped with cameras meant to scan the ship’s heat shield during reentry.
View of Starship in space from a Starlink V3 satellite on Flight 13.
This composite is made of imagery from four separate cameras on a single satellite. Six of the satellites were equipped with cameras to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to… pic.twitter.com/sNTHHz5vLr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 31, 2026
Flight 13 checked most of its boxes. Starship deployed all 20 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Musk’s longer term plan calls for a Starlink V3 constellation of 100,000 satellites, according to a recent FCC filing, with Starship as the only vehicle capable of launching them at the volume that requires. Each Starship flight is designed to carry up to 60 V3 satellites once the vehicle reaches routine service, well beyond what Falcon 9 can carry in a single mission.
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Starship is next expected to fly with an attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a maneuver SpaceX has so far reserved for the Super Heavy booster.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
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Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
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Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
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Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
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- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
SpaceX’s biggest test yet arrives this week and it’s not a rocket launch
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
