Elon Musk shared a case study video today on the social platform X showcasing a breakthrough technology jointly developed by Neuralink and the AI assistant Grok, helping patients with ALS "speak with their minds."
The video features Bradford Smith, a patient with ALS who has lost both mobility and speech capabilities due to his condition. However, through the brain-computer interface chip implanted by Neuralink, he can control the cursor to input text using his thoughts; subsequently, Musk's AI chatbot Grok automatically completes the sentences, and then uses voice cloning technology to "speak out" these texts in the patient's original voice.
This technology involves three core components: mind-to-text, which directly converts the patient's thoughts into text; Grok assistant, which understands and completes sentences like "telepathy"; and voice cloning, where AI reconstructs the patient's real voice, creating an experience that sounds as if the person is speaking themselves.
According to Mario Nawfal, who shared this case, this system allows Bradford Smith to "speak again," not only expressing himself more fluently but also sounding "just like he is speaking himself."
This collaboration has also been confirmed by official progress. In May this year, Neuralink's brain-computer interface device, Link, received the "Breakthrough Device" certification from the U.S. FDA for use in communication assistance for patients with severe language disorders. This marks the gradual realization of Musk's vision to integrate "brain-machine-AI."
Industry experts believe that such technologies are not only significant for ALS patients but also bring hope to patients with Parkinson's disease and cerebral palsy. In the future, the combination of brain-computer interfaces and generative AI could completely transform the way humans interact with technology, moving towards a new era of "direct communication through thought."