Elon Musk’s Neuralink live-streamed new footage of its brain implant in action on Wednesday — showing a quadriplegic man playing computer games with only his mind.
In a March 20 live stream to X, Musk’s Neuralink footage shows 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh — a quadriplegic patient implanted with the Neuralink device — controlling the cursor of a computer with his mind and using it to play games of chess and Civilization VI.
“It’s like using the force on a cursor, I stare somewhere on the screen and it would move where I wanted it to, said Arbaugh, adding:
“I can’t even begin to describe how cool it is that I get to do this.”
https://t.co/OMIeGGjYtG
— Neuralink (@neuralink) March 20, 2024
“One of the first times you guys gave me full control of this I stayed up until 6am playing a game of Civilization VI,” Arbaugh explained.
Eight years ago, Arbaugh suffered a severe spinal cord injury in a “freak diving accident” which left him completely paralyzed below the shoulders.
Arbaugh said the surgery went smoothly and was released from the hospital just one day after having the device implanted on Sunday, Jan. 28.
“It has already changed my life,” Arbaugh said. “The surgery was super easy.”
Arbaugh noted that some elements of the technology still required improvement but implored other people with neurological issues to step forward and get involved in human trials.
“I don’t want people to think that this is the end of the journey, there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said. “I would say to people who are thinking about applying for the human trials or are thinking about finding some way to help out with this, to do your part.”
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Neuralink’s brain implant aims to assist those with debilitating injuries or paralysis to interact with a phone or computer just by thinking, Musk said in a Jan. 30 post to X, adding that the first product from Neuralink is called Telepathy.
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”
Neuralink first opened applications for human clinical trials in September 2023 after the company received approval for its Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (PRIME) study from the United States Food and Drug Administration in May 2023, according to a Sept. 19 blog post from the firm.
The Neuralink device — also referred to as a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) — works by opening up a small section in the patient’s skull and using a surgical robot to implant the chip.
The device is comprised of “ultra-fine and flexible threads” and is implanted in a region of the brain that controls movement intention.
Once the device has been implanted, it becomes “cosmetically invisible” and acts as a recording and transmission device to wirelessly transmit data to an app that then decodes the patient’s thoughts into digital movement on a device.
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