Neuralink implant recipient demonstrates amazing tech in action, likens it to 'using the force on a cursor'



Neuralink posted a livestream on X featuring Noland Arbaugh, the first person to use Neuralink's technology that enables control of a computer via thought.

In the video on Wednesday, Arbaugh said that he is 29 years old and noted that he is paralyzed below his shoulders due to a "diving accident" around 8 years ago.

He demonstrated his ability to move the cursor on the computer screen and play chess using the Neuralink technology.

And at the request of the Neuralink engineer who was also on the video, Arbaugh paused music that had been playing.

In an apparent reference to "Star Wars," Arbaugh described the experience of using the technology as "using the force on a cursor."

"It's crazy, it really is," Arbaugh said. "It's so cool."

He noted that he has used the Neuralink technology to play the game Civilization VI. He also noted that he reads and enjoys learning languages and is learning Japanese and some French.

Arbaugh noted that the technology is "not perfect" and there have been "some issues" and that there is still much work to be performed, but the technology "has already changed my life."

He said that he is involved because he wants to help and be part of something he thinks will "change the world."

Back in late January, Elon Musk announced that Neuralink's implant had been placed in a human.

"The surgery was super easy," Arbaugh noted in the video on Wednesday.

He thanked Neuralink for its work.

Elon Musk shared the video, tweeting, "Livestream of @Neuralink demonstrating 'Telepathy' – controlling a computer and playing video games just by thinking."

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Elon Musk says a Neuralink implant has been placed in a human



Elon Musk announced that a Neuralink implant been placed in a human.

"The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," Musk noted in a post on X.

The company is seeking to place an implant in people's brains to enable them to control technology with their thoughts. Neuralink also has longer-term aspirations to eventually "restore capabilities such as vision, motor function, and speech, and eventually expand how we experience the world," according to its website.

"The first @Neuralink product is called Telepathy," Musk explained in another post. "Enables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking. Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal."

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According to information about Neuralink's clinical trial, the technology will be implanted in participants' brains using a surgical robot.

"The PRIME Study – a groundbreaking investigational medical device trial for our fully-implantable, wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) – aims to evaluate the safety of our implant and surgical robot, and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for enabling people with quadriplegia to control external devices with their thoughts," the company states.

In a post last year, Musk said that "in the long term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in AI risk civilizational risk reduction by improving human to AI (and human to human) bandwidth by several orders of magnitude."

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Elon Musk's Neuralink, which aims to help the disabled, says recruitment open for clinical trial in humans



Elon Musk's Neuralink has announced that recruitment for its first clinical trial in people is now open.

The company aims to implant devices in disabled individuals' brains that will enable those people to control a computer cursor or keyboard entirely through their thoughts, though there are also grander long-term aspirations for Neuralink.

"We are happy to announce that we've received approval from the reviewing independent institutional review board and our first hospital site to begin recruitment for our first-in-human clinical trial," the company stated. "The PRIME Study (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) – a groundbreaking investigational medical device trial for our fully-implantable, wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) – aims to evaluate the safety of our implant (N1) and surgical robot (R1) and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for enabling people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts."

"Those who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may qualify" to participate in the trial, according to the company.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its first clinical study in people.

According to the Neuralink website, the company aims to eventually "restore capabilities such as vision, motor function, and speech, and eventually expand how we experience the world."

Musk says that the technology holds "the potential to restore full body movement. In the long term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in AI risk civilizational risk reduction by improving human to AI (and human to human) bandwidth by several orders of magnitude. Imagine if Stephen Hawking had had this."

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