Musk predicts robots will surpass top surgeons within 5 years

April 28 (edited by Zhou Ziyi) Elon Musk’s latest post predicts that robots will surpass the best surgeons in humans within five years.

In response to tech commentator Mario Nawfal’s post promoting robotic operating rooms on social media platform X, Musk wrote, “Robots will surpass good human surgeons in a few years and the best human surgeons in about 5 years.” ”

In his reply, Musk also mentioned his brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, adding, “Neuralink will have to use robots to insert electrodes into brain-computers, because it is impossible for human doctors to achieve the speed and precision required.” ”

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However, Musk’s statement has sparked a wave of skepticism, with many questioning the feasibility of such predictions.

Some users directly raised Musk’s bar, saying that “on the one hand, it is pushing for a higher population, and on the other hand, it plans to replace everyone’s jobs with robots, what does this mean to you?” ”

Some users questioned Musk’s claim that “robots can completely replace human surgeons”, saying that current surgical robots are still advanced tools controlled by accredited surgeons, rather than autonomous robots, and saying that “this is just AI hype”.

A surgeon with experience in robot-assisted surgery also joined the debate, calling Musk’s rhetoric completely “misleading”, noting that “surgeons operate with robots as complex tools through a console, rather than robots [themselves] doing the surgery… It’s (the robot) a great tool, but it’s not a surgeon. ”

 R1 Robot

Neuralink is a neuroscience company founded by Musk in 2016, focusing on the research and development of brain-computer interface technology. Its core product, the N1 chip, is a brain-implantable device designed to enable “human-brain-machine interaction”.

In 2024, Neuralink implanted a coin-sized N1 chip into a human brain for the first time, and the robot R1 will operate it. According to Neuralink’s earlier public demonstration, Neuralink’s R1 robot inserts 64 hair-thin threads into the cerebral cortex in about 15 minutes to pass through blood vessels with micron-level precision.

The results of the trial showed that the first implant patient was already able to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media, and move the cursor on a laptop through his brain, a development that was undoubtedly successful.

Now, the R1 robot continues to be an important part of Neuralink’s first human clinical trials, PRIME. The trial focused on evaluating the performance of Neuralink’s series of brain-computer interface devices on humans.

In addition to Neuralink’s successful human brain device implantation surgery, there are many successful trials and studies to support Musk’s latest prediction that “robots replace surgeons”.

For example, a recent Johns Hopkins intelligent tissue autonomous robot sutured pig intestines with ultra-high accuracy, which rivals or surpasses that of experienced surgeons; A study in the January issue of the journal Surgical Endoscopy found that robots can reduce complications of complex liver surgery compared to open surgery.

In addition, semi-autonomous robotic platforms for surgical procedures are also developing. Intuitive Surgical says its surgeon-controlled da Vinci system has recorded nearly 17 million surgeries worldwide. Peer-reviewed analysis reports that algorithm-guided sutures and screw placement are currently better than the human average in terms of accuracy and consistency.