tl;dr Elon Musk’s habit of hyping a new technology, even when he is not a leader in the field, has long irked rivals. It was on full display this week when he

tl;dr Elon Musk’s habit of hyping a new technology, even when he is not a leader in the field, has long irked rivals. It was on full display this week when he wrote that Neuralink had succeeded in implanting an electrode into a human brain for the first time. Similar implants have been a staple of science labs for years. At least three rival start-ups have succeeded in inserting electrodes and using them to collect and interpret human brain signals. But, while Musk’s claims bring a shrug of resignation from rivals, they also draw grudging acknowledgment that his attention grabbing has helped to propel the field. “Are they [Neuralink] ahead? No. Is their technology unique? No, none of what I have seen is novel,” Vanhoestenberghe said — though she credited Musk’s company with being “very advanced” and “state of the art” in the field.