All you need to know about Neuralink's Telepathy update

What if we lived in a world in which our brains could control robotic prosthetics, play video

games and do work without us having to use our hands? How about a world in which we finally get an answer to a question probably as old as humanity

What is consciousness? These were some of the topics discussed during Neuralink's summer 2025 update in June

And according to co-founder Elon Musk, it's also what the brain chip company is aiming

to achieve. Here are the most important moments from the conference. Neuralink has been running US trials for two products that its co-founders talked about

called Telepathy and Blindsight. Today, we'll be looking at Telepathy. Musk described the product as a consensual telepathy tool that aims to transform the

way humans communicate, eventually allowing people to trade information thousands of times

faster than it's ever been possible. How would it work? Imagine talking to a friend, but without speaking or writing

No calls, no texting. Instead, a BCI or a brain-computer interface would send your thoughts directly from your

brain to someone else's, and vice versa. Neuralink's telepathy is still in development

The company is currently running trials in the US, with seven participants testing the

practical applications of the BCI technology. In clips shown in the conference, we see participants, all of whom are suffering from motor-related

and neurological conditions such as ALS or paralysis, successfully controlling their computers through thoughts alone. Here, the participants play Mario Kart together without

ever touching a console. And while telepathy aims to eventually achieve mind-to-mind communication

the BCI technology is already working, helping these to help participants to regain their

ability to speak or perform tasks. But moving from BCI to mind communication is a challenge Our brains generate electrical signals specific to thoughts sensory experiences and intentions But these signals are not set in stone They highly variable and their patterns often overlap making it difficult to map exactly what signal corresponds to an idea or intention

Think of Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example

In this 2004 film, scientists could track the exact parts of the brain certain memories occupied

occupy it and target those areas to erase them. But the reality of our brains is not as neat as fiction

Additionally, for telepathy to work, Neuralink will have to figure out how to transmit information

from one brain to another. Though the company has figured out how to make brain-to-device communication work, brain-to-brain

information transmission is way more difficult. As no two brains are alike, the receiver's brain will have to successfully interpret

the information sent by the transmitter and translated in a way that the receiver understands

correctly. This is also known as neural compatibility. These are some of the technical

challenges telepathy is facing, but there are also safety-related and ethical concerns

Inserting an implant into a person's brain, after all, is an invasive procedure, which comes with

the risk of infections, long-term side effects, and even brain damage. Neuralink says it has been

optimizing its advanced surgical robots to minimize those risks, but there's still need

of further research and improvement. Then there's also the question of privacy and security

If you're using telepathy, who will have access to your thoughts? Governments notoriously failed

to adopt protective policies in earlier examples of tech innovations such as social media

and they're currently struggling to adopt safeguarding policies concerning the use of AI

So can we trust them with telepathy? What do you make of this update? And would you like more

explainers on Neuralink's work? Let us know in the comments. And if you want more stories

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