Elon Musk's latest foray attempts to merge computers and brains

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has launched a new company with the aim of bringing the human brain closer together with artificial intelligence.

Neuralink, which has so far been maintained as a secret project by the entrepreneur, was revealed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday despite only being at an early stage of progress.

Musk wants to create devices which allow human beings and software to merge and allow people’s brains to keep up with advances in technology.

Tesla has led the way in many aspects of innovation in relation to vehicles, including autonomous driving and electric cars. The company recently acquired another of Musk’s businesses, SolarCity.

Musk is also the driving force behind SpaceX, an exploration firm which has plans to offer commercial flights to space in the near future.

The South African-born businessman has hinted in recent months about a venture towards the emerging artificial intelligence sector. At a summit in Dubai in late 2016, Musk predicted that there would be a closer relationship between human and artificial intelligence.

"Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk said. "It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output."

According to the WSJ report, Neuralink will not initially focus on boosting the power of the average human brain, but will explore how brain interfaces could perhaps be used to treat symptoms from several medical conditions.