• Neuralink hopes to begin implanting its brain chips in humans in 2022, according to Elon Musk.
• People with severe spinal-cord injuries would be the first humans to receive the chips, he said.
• Musk has previously stated that Neuralink’s chips will be implanted in humans in the near future.

Elon Musk’s brain-interface technology company, Neuralink, has stated that it plans to begin implanting its microchips in humans next year.

Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016, which is working on a chip that would be implanted in people’s brains to record and stimulate brain activity simultaneously. It’s designed to be used in medical settings, such as to treat serious spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders.

Musk was asked what Neuralink planned to do in 2022 during a live-streamed interview at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit on Monday.

“Neuralink is working well in monkeys,” Musk said, “and we’re doing a lot of testing and just confirming that it’s very safe and reliable, and the Neuralink device can be safely removed.”

We hope to have this in our first humans — people with severe spinal-cord injuries like tetraplegics and quadriplegics — next year, pending FDA approval,” he added.

“Our standards for implanting the device are substantially higher than what the FDA requires,” Musk said.

In a tweet, Musk reaffirmed the 2022 deadline. “Next year, when we have devices in humans (it’s difficult to have nuanced conversations with monkeys), progress will accelerate,” he said.

Musk has previously stated that Neuralink’s chips will be implanted in humans in a shorter timeframe. In February, he stated that Neuralink could begin implanting the technology in humans by the end of 2021. Musk stated in 2019 that Neuralink hoped to start human testing by the end of 2020.

Musk has a track record of overpromising and underdelivering on project schedules.

In April, Neuralink released a video of a monkey using a Neuralink device to play a video game.

Neuralink announced in July that it would use the $205 million raised to further develop its chip, which would allow quadriplegics to control digital devices with their minds.

The full or partial paralysis of the arms and legs is known as quadriplegia or tetraplegia.

Neuralink isn’t the only company working on brain-computer interfaces. The Food and Drug Administration gave Synchron, a 20-person biotech firm, permission to begin human testing in July.