Mario posted on X that he predicts "robots will outperform good human surgeons in a few years and outperform the best human surgeons in about 5 years."

Mario was responding to a post by tech commentator Mario Nawfal on X promoting a robotic operating room, and added that "Neuralink had to use robots to perform brain-machine electrode insertions because it's impossible for humans to achieve the speed and precision required."

According to Neuralink's hardware blog and earlier public demonstrations, Neuralink's R1 machine inserts 64 hair-thin wires into the cerebral cortex in about 15 minutes, passing through blood vessels with micron-level precision. The robot is now part of the PRIME human trial, which is testing the N1 wireless implant on paralyzed patients.

Mario's timeline comes as autonomous systems triumph in the real world. Johns Hopkins University’s Intelligent Tissue autonomous robot recently sutured pig intestines with leak-free precision that rivals or exceeds that of experienced surgeons. A January study cited by Reuters even found that robots can reduce complications in complex liver surgeries compared with open surgery.

Even semi-autonomous platforms are thriving: Intuitive Surgical says its surgeon-controlled da Vinci system has logged nearly 17 million procedures worldwide. A peer-reviewed analysis reports that algorithm-guided suturing and screw placement now outperforms the human average in accuracy and consistency.