2024-03-27 05:11:34
The first patient to have a chip implanted appeared using his mind to play chess online, in a live broadcast from Neuralink, the startup company that manufactures brain chips owned by Elon Musk.
Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old patient whose body was paralyzed from below the shoulder after a diving accident, plays chess on his laptop and moves the cursor using a Neuralink chip during Wednesday’s broadcast.
The aim of the chip implant is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts.
Musk announced last month that the company’s chip was implanted in Arbo’s brain in January, and he can control a computer mouse with his thoughts.
Arbo stated in the clip that was broadcast on the X social media platform, “The surgery was very easy.. I was allowed to leave the hospital literally the next day.” “I do not suffer from any cognitive disabilities.”
Arbaud said about the video game (Civilization 6): “I had given up hope of playing that game. You all (at Neuralink) gave me the ability to do that again, and I played for eight hours straight.”
But he added that trying this new technology was “not ideal” and that they faced “some problems.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done, but it has already changed my life,” he added.
“It’s still in the early days after (the chip) is implanted, and there’s a lot of learning ahead of both sides, Neuralink and the patient, to maximize information about the control that can be achieved,” said Kip Ludwig, former director of the Neuroengineering Program at the US National Institutes of Health.
Musk has great aspirations for “Neuralink,” as he said that the company will facilitate rapid surgeries to implant chips to treat conditions, including severe obesity, autism, depression, and schizophrenia.
Last updated: March 22, 2024 – 02:00
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2024-03-27 05:11:34