The startup’s founder, Elon Musk, said late Monday that the first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and can control a computer mouse through their thoughts.
“Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with neural effects that we are aware of,” he said in a Spaces event on social media platform X. He said the company is trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the person, who he called patient zero. “It’s going well so far, but it’s early,” he added.
Neuralink, which aims to connect the brain to external devices using implants, has been working on the technology for half a decade. But the company has struggled with issues including careless animal experiments that led to a monkey’s death and a federal investigation, reports from insiders told CNBC last year. Neuralink is also facing scrutiny for rushing to market and putting profits ahead of safety.
The company received FDA approval in May to begin enrolling patients in its permanent implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) clinical trial. The device is designed to interpret a person’s neural activity and allow them to control external devices such as a computer or smartphone through their thoughts. It is being developed to help people with quadriplegia due to spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, according to Neuralink’s website.
However, the implant is a significant undertaking that requires a hole to be drilled through the skull and brain, creating risks of infection, bleeding, and other complications. Experts say it’s still too early to know how the device will perform or whether it is safe and effective, especially in humans.
It’s also unclear what use cases the technology will eventually enable. Some people with paralysis want to be able to control external devices, but the technology could also be used for other conditions, such as blindness and mental illness. But others, like Laura Cabrera, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, argue that Neuralink’s focus on non-medical applications could raise red flags for some.