In an unexpected development, Benjamin Rapoport, who co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk, has left the brain-computer interface startup, citing safety concerns. The disclosure was made in an interview with the Wall Street Journal podcast, "The Future of Everything."

As a neurosurgeon by training, Rapoport clarified that although he had devoted a significant portion of his career to bringing brain interfaces from research to medicine, he was forced to put safety first when fusing technology and medicine. Following his resignation from Neuralink, he founded Precision Neuroscience.

In essence, Rapoport is primarily concerned with the way Neuralink functions. In order to obtain information, they insert these small electrodes into the brain, but Rapoport believes this might be risky as it could damage the brain.

However, his recently founded Precision Neuroscience employs alternative electrodes that remain beyond the brain's surface. By doing this, they intend to reduce the process's danger and increase people's safety. "I've spent almost my whole career working to bridge the gap between neuroscience and medicine via neural interfaces. However, I believed that safety must come first in order to go into the fields of technology and medicine," Rapaport stated.Rapaport went on, "Safety for a medical device often implies minimal invasiveness.""And in the early days of brain-computer interfaces, there was this notion that in order to extract information-rich data from the brain, one needed to penetrate the brain with tiny little needle-like electrodes"

Neuralink has been criticized in the past, despite receiving recognition for its innovative work in brain-computer interfaces. The company's efforts have been clouded by rumors of mistreated animals at Neuralink labs and doubts expressed by the scientific community. Despite this, interest in the possible uses of brain-computer interface technology hasn't diminished.

As of the time of publication, neither Rapoport nor Neuralink has responded to requests for further information. The controversy concerning the ethics and safety of brain-computer interfaces is still ongoing, but Rapoport's resignation highlights how crucial it is to put safety first while pursuing technical advancements.