Elon Musk’s Neuralink shows quadriplegic patient playing online chess with his mind
- Noland Arbaugh, who injured his spinal cord in a diving accident, said in a live-stream update that the brain implant also allows him to play video games
- He said he was out of hospital a day after the Neuralink procedure, which went smoothly, but that there’s ‘still work to be done’ to refine the technology
Elon Musk’s Neuralink Corp. live-streamed an update with its first brain implant patient on Wednesday, showing a quadriplegic man who was able to play video games and online chess using his mind.
Neuralink is a brain technology start-up 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 Civilisation 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, 29, said he sustained a spinal cord injury in a “freak diving accident” eight years ago. He also said he was released from the hospital a day after the Neuralink procedure in January, which went smoothly.
He added that there was “still work to be done” to refine the technology.
Chinese brain chip helps man regain mobility and is less invasive than Neuralink
Neuralink is not the only company working on brain devices that connect with computers.
Modern demonstrations of cursor control by using thoughts have taken place in other humans with various types of implants, such as those deployed by the Braingate consortium of research institutions and hospitals.
However, the Neuralink device contains more electrodes than other devices, suggesting it may have more potential applications in future.
The Neuralink device works without needing a wired connection to external devices.
