Why was a simple eight-contact implant approved before Neuralink's thousand-electrode one? · Grey Matter

A regulator weighs the risk of an implant against the benefit a trial has shown, and NEO kept both modest.

Why was a simple eight-contact implant approved before Neuralink's thousand-electrode one?

A regulator weighs the risk of an implant against the benefit a trial has shown, and NEO kept both modest. It sits on the dura without entering the brain, does one job (opening and closing a glove), and reached approval in China on 36 people followed for 18 months. The N1 pushes 64 threads into the cortex to read individual neurons and aims at far richer control, which demands longer evidence that the threads stay put and the tissue tolerates them; in 2026 it is still in early feasibility studies.