American billionaire Elon Musk has just released significant progress in his neurotechnology firm Neuralink, with the first human patient recovering from the brain chip implantation surgery conducted in late January 2024.
More impressively, the human patient can now control a computer mouse just by thinking.
First brain chip patient’s progress
As per Elon Musk’s announcement in a Spaces event on his social media platform X on Monday, the first human patient of Neuralink’s clinical trial continues to show signs of full recovery with expected neural effects.
As mentioned, the patient can simply use his/her thoughts to control a computer mouse.
“Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with neural effects that we are aware of. Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking.”
Neuralink Founder Elon Musk
Neuralink further aims to “get as many button presses as possible from thinking,” the business tycoon added. A
About the surgery
Neuralink’s “Prime Study” successfully completed its inaugural chip implantation surgery in a human patient in late January.
The clinical trial uses a robot that conducts the surgery to implant a brain-computer interface (BCI) chip in a particular part of the brain that controls movement.
After the surgery, the American billionaire announced that the patient’s response to the brain chip showed “promising neuron spike detection.”
For those unaware, “spikes” are basically neurons’ movement that sends messages around the human brain and to the body through electrical and chemical signals.
Primary purpose
Neuralink’s Prime Study primarily aims to aid paralyzed people in controlling computer cursors or keyboards by just using their thoughts. The BCI chip contains “ultra-fine” threads that transmit signals to the human brain.
Neuralink aims to call its first product “Telepathy,” according to Elon Musk. It seeks to read human brains and control computers, potentially restoring lost functions of people suffering from paralysis or vision impairments.
However, Neuralink has yet to overcome numerous challenges to prove Telepathy’s safety for humans and viability before achieving large-scale adoption.
