Musk hopes the implant, created by his brain-computer interface startup Neuralink, could one day help quadriplegics control smartphones, and perhaps even endow users with a sort of telepathy.
Like existing brain-machine interfaces, it would collect electrical signals sent out by the brain and interpret them as actions.
But will it be, as Musk envisions, the kind of device that the average person will one day sign up for, too?
Yet the reality is that implanting a device underneath the skull will remain brain surgery.
For now, Neuralink said it is working on a brain chip to help with serious medical conditions, but Musk eventually wants it to appeal to all kinds of people.