TECH NEWS – Noland Arbaugh, who is the first clinical test subject of the Neuralink brain-computer interface implant, recently talked about what it feels like to live with the chip.
In January, Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, implanted a brain-computer interface (BCI) chip into a human brain. With this, he launched the first clinical trial on living humans. The company recently released a video of the patient, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, who was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a diving accident eight years ago. The video shows that the man can move the cursor of a computer mouse with his thoughts.
Arbaugh has now shared more details about what it means to live with the chip in his brain.
As he put it, it was like using the famous Force from Star Wars to move the cursor, and it was an incredible experience that the cursor moved where he wanted.
He played chess by controlling the cursor and turning off the background music. In fact, he even played the strategy game Civilization 6 for an entire night! Before the operation, he would not have been able to do this on his own. It was the first time that Neuralink professionals gave him full control over the chip.
According to Arbaugh, he didn’t play much before the implant. He needed the help of a friend even to play, but the long matches made that impossible. According to the man, the biggest limitation for him was that he had to wait until the chip was fully charged. Because he played so much that the device died…
In addition to Civilization 6, he also played Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. But he doesn’t just use the implant for play: he started learning Japanese and French after reading, which became much easier for him.
Shortly after the release of the first video, Elon Musk wrote on his X page that with the help of the chip, they would also like to be able to direct the brain signal directly to the limb, bypassing the damaged spinal column.
In other words, it would help paralysed people walk and move again. In addition, Musk has already talked about the possibility of curing blindness with a chip that can be implanted in the brain.
Although the current success is clearly worth celebrating, the road leading up to it was not exactly easy. Horrific details have previously emerged about what happened to Neuralink’s experimental animals who had chips implanted in their brains. In addition, the authorities found incomplete documentation in the laboratory where the company implanted chips in the animals’ brains.
Neuralink was kind enough to open their doors for me to tour their headquarters a few weeks back. It was an amazing experience and a day I'll never forget. This was at a company wide meeting at the end of the day. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. Hope y'all enjoy!… pic.twitter.com/YNa2Jtjhnk
— Noland Arbaugh (@ModdedQuad) March 22, 2024
Long-term, it is possible to shunt the signals from the brain motor cortex past the damaged part of the spine to enable people to walk again and use their arms normally
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2024
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