It’s happening now, you know. Commercialized AI-powered neural implants. But why the heck should you care? Not like you plan to get one or anything.

Let’s look at some facts.

China already commercialized one. In March 2026, Chinese company Neuracle beat the US to the first commercialized invasive brain implant, making it available to the general public rather than just clinical trials. It’s even covered by some insurance and listed in some hospital catalogues.

Here in the US, dozens of private companies are researching AI brain-computer interfaces (BCI), along with research happening at many academic institutions, like Caltech and UT Southwestern in Dallas. About a handful of commercial companies are currently implanting patients with AI-BCI.

These are clinical trials, not yet available commercially. People chosen for the trials have some form of severe disability, often quadriplegic paralysis. The implanted neurotech allows them to convert thought to text or synthetic speech, bypassing the motor system.

The most high-profile of these is Elon Musk’s company Neuralink, which currently has about 21 implanted volunteers. Some of them are even on Twitter, using the thought-to-text capability of their neural implant to write their tweets. Pretty amazing.

Because brain-computer interfaces use AI in their decoding processes, advancements in BCI will progress faster as AI capabilities grow more powerful over time.

And lest we forget China, we should probably remember that the world’s superpowers are currently researching AI-BCI for military use. Super soldiers. Just something to keep in mind.

Alright, that about sums up the BCI acceleration basics. Even in China, it’ll probably be a while before lots of random people with brain implants are walking around smarter and more cognitively efficient than the rest of us. Even longer before they’ll be affordable enough for the regular citizen. But it’ll be here before you know it.

Would you get one?

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(As a shameless self-plugging side note, my cyberpunk sci-fi horror novel about hackable brain implants, Open Source, came out in January 2016, six months *before* Musk founded Neuralink. If you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out. Just saying.)