Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink livestreamed its first patient implanted with a chip using his mind to play online chess. In the video, Noland Arbaugh, who was paralyzed below the shoulder after a diving accident, played chess on his laptop and moved the cursor using the Neuralink device. The company has said that the implant attempts to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts.
The 29-year-old had received an implant from the company in January and could control a computer mouse using his thoughts, Elon Musk said last month.
Neuralink patient on his implant procedure
In the video which was streamed on Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Noland Arbaugh talked about the implant procedure and said, “The surgery was super easy. I literally was released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairments.”
Referring to the game Civilization VI, he said, “I had basically given up playing that game. You all (Neuralink) gave me the ability to do that again and played for 8 hours straight.”
Does Neuralink work as per the brain chip patient
While elaborating on his experience with the new technology, he said that it is “not perfect” and they “have run into some issues”, adding, “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, but it has already changed my life.”
Experts remain sceptic
Although, Kip Ludwig, former program director for neural engineering at the US National Institutes of Health, said that what Neuralink showed was not a “breakthrough” because “it is still in the very early days post-implantation, and there is a lot of learning on both the Neuralink side and the subject’s side to maximize the amount of information for control that can be achieved.”
It’s certainly a good starting point,” he added.
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