Elon Musk’s Neuralink company showed a video of their first brain implant patient on a livestream. The patient is a man who can’t move his arms or legs, but he was able to play video games and chess online using only his thoughts.
Neuralink makes a special implant that lets people control computers with their minds. Elon Musk wants to help people who have serious physical problems like not being able to move their bodies.
In the video on Wednesday, which was streamed on Musk’s social platform X, the patient, Noland Arbaugh, was able to use his computer to play chess and the game Civilization VI. “I had given up on playing that game,” he said.
Neuralink is not the only company working on brain devices that connect with computers.
Elon Musk‘s Neuralink Corp. livestreamed an update with its first brain implant patient Wednesday, showing a quadriplegic man who was able to play video games and online chess using his mind.
Neuralink is a brain technology startup founded by Musk. Its implant allows a patient to use their thoughts to control a computer. Musk has said that the company will start by working with patients who have severe physical limitations like cervical spinal cord impairment or quadriplegia.
In the video on Wednesday, which was streamed on Musk’s social platform X, the patient, Noland Arbaugh, was able to use his computer to play chess and the game Civilization VI. “I had given up on playing that game,” he said.
“It has already changed my life,” Arbaugh said. “The surgery was super easy.”
Arbaugh, who is 29 years old, had a spinal cord injury from a diving accident eight years ago. He got the Neuralink procedure in January and left the hospital the next day. He said everything went well, but there’s still more work to improve the technology.
Neuralink isn’t the only company making brain devices for computers. Other groups like the BrainGate consortium have also shown how people can control cursors with their thoughts using implants.
The Neuralink device has more electrodes than others, which means it might be useful for more things in the future. Plus, it doesn’t need wires to connect to outside devices.
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In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk hinted that the device may have the capability to restore vision. “Blindsight is the next product after Telepathy,” he wrote, referring to the name of the implant for paralyzed patients.
“I’m happy for the individual that he’s been able to interface with a computer in a way he wasn’t able to before the implant,” said Kip Allan Ludwig, co-director of the Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering. “That’s not a breakthrough compared to what others have shown previously, but it’s certainly a good starting point.”
According to a Facebook page for Arbaugh, which hasn’t been publicly updated since 2017, his accident took place at a children’s camp in June 2016. In 2017, he successfully raised $10,000 via a GoFundMe campaign to purchase an accessible custom-built van.
