Elon Musk posts video of man with Neuralink brain chip playing chess via ‘telepathy’
Musk announced that the first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and was able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts
Neuralink, Elon Musk‘s brain-chip venture, showcased its first patient who played online chess and video games solely through his thoughts using the Neuralink device. This was captured in a video that has been widely circulated on the internet, showing the patient with the implanted chip.
The patient, Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old who became paralysed below the shoulder due to a diving accident, was seen playing chess on his laptop. He was controlling the cursor using the Neuralink device.
During the livestream, he said, “If you see the cursor moving on the screen, that’s all my doing.” He seemed quite thrilled about it and said, “It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?”
Arbaugh also explained how he uses the brain-computer interface in the video. He said, “I would try to move my right hand in different directions, and from there, it just became instinctive for me to start visualizing the cursor moving.”
Arbaugh expressed his gratitude for being part of the Neuralink study and said, “I just can’t even describe how cool it is to be able to do this.”
Neuralink, founded by Musk in 2016, is a brain-chip startup. It’s a coin-sized device that is surgically implanted in the skull. Its ultra-thin wires go into the brain and develop a brain-computer interface (BCI).
The disk registers brain activity and sends it to a device, such as a smartphone, via a common Bluetooth connection.
Earlier this year, Musk announced that the first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and was able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts.
Musk said, “Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of.” He added, “The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking.” This was shared during a Spaces event on social media platform X.
Musk also mentioned that Neuralink is now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.
Blindsight is about to go live!
While Neuralink enables people to control things just with the help of their brain, Blindsight will help blind people have vision as if they never lost their sight.
Musk shared another video on his X handle and said that after its first product Telepathy, it is now time for Blindsight.
He wrote on X, “Blindsight is the next product after Telepathy,” while responding to a user. This is not the first time that Musk has mentioned Blindsight. The X CEO has talked about the product on multiple occasions.
Meanwhile, last year in September, Neuralink revealed plans for a trial involving implants. They announced that a specially designed robot would carefully insert extremely thin threads into the participants’ brains, which are essential for transmitting signals within the brain.
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