Elon Musk's Neuralink Co-Founder Announces Exit From Company

Max Hodak said over the weekend he was moving on to "new things" but would remain a "huge cheerleader" for the Musk-fronted neurotech company.

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Max Hodak, co-founder of Neuralink, has left the company.

Over the weekend, Hodak—who founded the neurotechnology company alongside Elon Musk and others back in 2016—announced his exit. Per Hodak, he’s actually been away from the company for several weeks now.

“Some personal news,” Hodak said in a tweet on Saturday. “I am no longer at Neuralink (as of a few weeks ago). I learned a ton there and remain a huge cheerleader for the company! Onward to new things.” 

Notably, Hodak had recently been widely reported as having served as Neuralink’s president. And while he didn’t give a specific reason for his departure when making his announcement this weekend, he did jokingly note that a real-life Jurassic Park would not be among his future endeavors.

This, of course, is a reference to last month’s viral confusion over a tweet from Hodak about the present-day possibilities of a Jurassic Park-inspired experience. In a tweet shared in early April, Hodak said “we could probably build jurassic park if we wanted to,” noting that such a thing would likely not feature “genetically authentic” dinosaurs but would instead—in theory—employ the use of years of breeding and engineering for “super exotic novel species.”

While the tweet in question did not mention Neuralink, many subsequent headlines took a leap by positing Hodak’s comments as being representative of the company itself.

Actual developments on the Neuralink front, meanwhile, have been met with skeptics and enthusiasts alike. In April, for example, the company released a video showing what they claimed was a monkey playing Pong using only his mind.

View this video on YouTube

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In related news, Musk—for reasons not entirely clear—will soon be hosting Saturday Night Live.

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