What just happened? Just a few weeks after Elon Musk announced that the first human subject had received an implant from his controversial Neuralink company and was recovering well, he says the patient has now fully recovered and can control a computer mouse using their thoughts alone.
"Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of," Musk said in a conversation with Katherine Brodsky during a Spaces event on X. "Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking."
Neuralink's founder said that the brain-chip implant company is now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.
Neuralink was given permission by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin its first in-human clinical study back in May last year, paving the way for a brain-machine interface with the potential to treat fatal neurological diseases, paralysis, blindness, and more. The firm started accepting applications for its first human clinical trial in September.
In late January, Musk announced on X that the first human Neuralink patient was recovering from an operation in which they received an implant and that there were good results for neuron spike detection, which meant the company was getting readings from the patient's brain.
Musk said at the time that Neuralink's first product, called Telepathy, will enable control of a phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking. Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs, such as people with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
Neuralink's brain-computer interface (BCI) implant is placed in the section of the brain responsible for the intention to move. The company writes that the N1 implant records neural activity through 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 highly flexible, ultra-thin threads.
There are several other brain-computer interface companies competing with Neuralink. Most of these are focused on developing their products solely for medical use, but Musk has talked about Neuralink tech allowing users to stream music directly into their brains or record everything that happens and play it back whenever they want. If the concept of recording and playing back memories sounds familiar, that's because it's the exact plot of the Black Mirror episode 'The Entire History of You.'
