It has a name and a face first patient of the start-up of Elon Musk, Neuralink: the brain chip company that showed this in a long video on their X account while he used a computer to play online chess and turn off the music thanks to the device implanted in his brain. His name is Noland Arbaugh29, and was paralyzed from the shoulders down after a diving accident eight years ago.
The functions of the chip
He is the one who received the Telephaty chip created to give patients like Arbaugh and many others affected by disabling pathologies the ability to communicate. “Advanced, customized, low-power chips and electronics process neural signals, transmitting them wirelessly to the Neuralink application, which decodes the data stream into actions and intent“, the Neuralink experts explained when presenting to the world this new technology composed of over a thousand electrodes and 64 ultra-thin wires. “The intervention it was very simple“Mr. Arbaugh said during the video presentation, noting that he used his brain implant to play the video game “Civilization VI.” Neuralink gave him “the chance to do it again and played for eight hours straight“he stressed in the video.
Musk’s announcement
Proud, after his company published the video, Elon Musk has tweeted posting the Neuralik livestream”demonstrating ‘Telepathy’: controlling a computer and playing video games simply by thinking.” The tycoon let the world know that the chip had been implanted last January. “The first human received an implant from Neuralink and is recovering well. Initial results show promising neuronal spike detection“he said.
A system to improve
Despite his happiness at the milestone achieved, the 29-year-old explained during the video that the technology is not yet perfect and that some technical problems have occurred. “I don’t want people to think this is the end of the journey, there’s still a lot of work to do, but it’s already changed my life“he said. In the nine-minute video, Arbaugh explained the process he underwent to train on the device, saying that by thinking about moving his hand he was able to move the computer cursor.”It became intuitive for me to start imagining the movement of the cursor. It was like using force on the cursor and I could make it move wherever I wanted“he declared using a reference to the Star Wars saga.”I learn new things every day.”