Elon Musk reveals brain-hacking plans

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"It's not like suddenly we will have this incredible neural lace and will take over people's brains," Mr Musk said during his presentation. "It will take a long time."

But he said, for those who choose it, the system would ultimately allow for "symbiosis with artificial intelligence.

Previously Mr Musk has suggested that AI could destroy the human race.

"Even in a benign AI scenario, we will be left behind," he said.

"With a high bandwidth brain machine interface, we can go along for the ride and effectively have the option of merging with AI."

Later, during a question and answer session, he revealed that the device NeuraLink is working on has been tested on monkeys, with the animal able to control a computer with its brain, according to Mr Musk.

Now the firm is putting together a submission to start human testing, which will need to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.