Neuralink's first human patient is now a public figure, and the company released a video yesterday showing him playing chess on a laptop and talking about how "damn lucky" he is to be involved in the trials.
Sitting with Neuralink's first brain chip implant patient
Noland Arbaugh, 29, was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a diving accident several years ago. Thanks to his experimental Neuralink implant, he says he can now control a mouse pointer, play video games and generally feel like someone with "telekinetic" abilities – albeit limited to the digital realm.
Arbaugh's Neuralink device was implanted in January, and within a month, Neuralink CEO Elon Musk remarked that he could completely control a mouse pointer with his thoughts. In the video, Arbaugh says the process worked by distinguishing between imagined and attempted movement by trying to move his arms from left to right — something he can't do as a quadriplegic.
He used the same intention to imagine moving a cursor on the screen, describing his ability as "like using the Force", referring to the Star Wars phenomenon that allows Jedi Knights to move objects with their senses.
