No, you don’t need to drill a hole in your head and implant a microchip in order to lose weight. There are much safer ways of slimming down—including a new class of very promising drugs that make weight-control brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) seem downright perilous in comparison.

Conspiracy-peddling billionaire Elon Musk raised the prospect of computer-chip-aided weight-loss back in April, while discussing his Neuralink BCI in a TED interview. “I think you can solve a very wide range of brain injuries,” Musk said, “including severe depression, morbid obesity, sleep [disorders and] restoring memory in older people.”

Elon Musk Wants You to Use Neuralink to Lose Weight. That’s a Bad Idea. – DNyuz