Elon Musk loses Neuralink chief after revealing he wired a monkey to play video games with its mind

Sudden and unexplained departure raises questions about the brain implant startup's future

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The president and co-founder of Elon Musk’s brain implant startup mysteriously left the company after the billionaire revealed that it had embedded a microchip into a monkey’s brain so that it could play video games with its mind. 

Max Hodax wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he had left Neuralink, a health tech company with $158m (£118m) in funding which he helped found with Mr Musk in 2016. 

Mr Hodax gave no reason for his departure, but said that he was no longer there “as of a few weeks ago”. 

The timing pinpoints his exit as around the same time that the startup shared a video of a nine-year-old macaque named Pager with a chip inserted into each side of his brain. 

Neuralink claimed that the chip allowed Pager to play Pong with his mind. This was possible after scientists monitoring the neurons Pager fired when learning to play with a joystick, they said.  

Mr Hodak’s departure will weigh heavily on the controversial company. The former said that he “learned a ton there” and that he remained “a huge cheerleader for the company” but was “onward to new things”. 

Later in the comments, Mr Hodak hinted that his exit was not of his own making. A critic wrote under Mr Hodak’s tweet: “I am not a fan of leadership leaving a company w/o having a single product on the market. Seems too early.” To which Mr Hodak replied: “Same”. 

Mr Musk, who is worth an estimated $173bn (£126bn), has said Neuralink’s technology could be used to help people with paralysis communicate their thoughts, and possibly be able to download memories onto devices. 

In early April, Mr Hodak said humans “could probably build Jurassic Park if we wanted to", adding that it would take “maybe 15 years of breeding and engineering to get super exotic novel species”. 

Neuralink did not respond to a request for commet. 

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