Elon Musk unveils Neuralink

Elon Musk has shown off its coin-sized computer chip for the brain by introducing the world to Gertrude, a “cyborg pig” with Neuralink in its brain.

On a webcast, Musk unveiled the Neuralink, which he described as “a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires”.

The Neuralink startup applied to launch human trials in 2019.

Musk says the chip could potentially allow people with brain injuries or neurological conditions to control computers with their mind.

The billionaire also says the Neuralink could evolve to help cure brain conditions such as Parkinson’s disease or spinal cord injuries.

Musk believes the Neuralink is a step towards what he calls the age of “superhuman cognition”.

During a webcast on Friday, Musk showed off Gertrude and how the Neuralink tracks the activity in the pig’s brain.

Apple terminates Epic Games’ account

Apple has terminated Epic Games’ account in its App Store, in another move in the legal fight between the two companies over in-app payments on Fortnite.

The move comes after Apple had already removed the popular game from the store.

The legal stoush started when Fortnite creator Epic Games offered a discount on its virtual currency for purchases made outside the game, for which Apple receives a 30% cut.

Epic Games has publicly disputed Apple’s 30% fee and sued the company after Apple’s decision to take Fortnite off the App Store. Epic has accused Apple of running “a complete monopoly”.

The fight between the two companies has now escalated with the removal of Epic from the App Store.

NZX investigating ongoing cyber attacks

After four days of website outages last week, the New Zealand Stock Exchange is investigating what is believed to be a cyber attack from overseas, consisting of multiple distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

“We are currently experiencing connectivity issues which appear similar to those caused by severe DDoS attacks from offshore this week,” NZX said after the market failed to open at 10am on Friday.

The first DDoS attack struck last Tuesday, halting trade in its cash markets from 3:57pm NZST.

“I can’t go into much more in terms of specific details other than to say that we as a government are treating this very seriously,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in a media briefing on Friday.