The founding team of Neuralink is on the verge of disappearing.

follow up ReutersPaul Merola has quit his job at Neuralink “in the last few weeks”. He is one of the key people involved in the establishment of the company. Merola later confirmed his departure on LinkedIn and on his personal blog, saying he will be leaving the company on June 3 to pursue a new project that is “still a mystery.” He admits it was a difficult decision as he still finds Neuralink’s mission “surprising”.

“I hope to have the opportunity to work with Neuralink again if possible.” I also hope the company will soon achieve its goal of improving the lives of brain injury patients, Merola wrote on his personal blog.

Neuralink was founded in 2016. In July with eight members: Elon Musk, Ben Rapoport, Dongjin Seo, Max Hodak, Paul Merola, Tim Gardner, Tim Hansen and Vanessa Tolosa, but three quarters quit after six five. Currently, the company’s founding team consists of only two people, including Musk and engineer Dongjin Seo.

Prior to Merola, 2021 Neuralink President Max Hodak left the company in May to join rival Synchron in February. He also beat out Neuralink, the company that implanted chips in human brains and was approved by the US Federal Office of Certification. Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2021. Meanwhile, Musk’s company is still awaiting an appeal and response from the FDA.

Elon Musk hopes the company will succeed in creating a “brain-computer interface” to treat brain diseases and enable people to integrate with artificial intelligence in the future. The company began testing on animals early last year when a monkey implanted a chip in its head and was able to play games with its own mind. He also said he recently uploaded his brain to the cloud, but many people were skeptical.

In a Pew Research survey of 10,260 American adults earlier this year, more than half of the participants said they would consider implanting a computer chip if they could control it.

Bao Lam (Consequences Business Insider)