Elon Musk shows the first patient with a chip implanted in his brain

Elon Musk reveals first brain-chipped patient playing chess via mind power. Photo: UNIAN

On March 20, 2024, Elon Musk posted a video on his social network X (formerly Twitter) showcasing the first person to receive a brain chip. The 29-year-old patient, identified as Noland Arbo, stated that he had been paralyzed from the shoulders down after an accident about eight years ago.

Arbo demonstrated in the video how he uses the power of his mind to move the cursor and play computer chess.

"The operation went very smoothly," he said at the presentation. However, he admitted that the new technology is not perfect and the experiment was not without certain nuances.

It is noted that the Neuralink device is designed to read brain activity to decipher the intended movement of a person and then execute the command to perform that action.

The video featuring Arbo comes nearly three years after Neuralink published footage of a monkey playing Pong with its mind. At that time, the company faced criticism for its treatment of animals during the development of the brain implant.

Earlier, Elon Musk commented on X for the first time admitting that monkeys had died during testing. However, he claimed that none of the deaths were related to the implantation. However, an investigation conducted by WIRED showed otherwise. Journalists examined veterinary records and interviewed a former Neuralink employee and researchers, revealing that some animals were euthanized after their health deteriorated following brain chip implantation.

Musk mentioned that Neuralink's first product is named Telepathy. According to him, Telepathy allows users to "simply think" to control a phone or computer, and through them, "virtually any device".

As reported earlier, on January 28, Neuralink for the first time implanted a brain chip in a human.

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