News

Neuralink Successfully Implants Second Brain-Computer Interface Device

• By John K. Waters
• 08/07/2024

Elon Musk says his brain-computer interface (BCI) company Neuralink has successfully implanted a BCI device into a second human test patient. He shared the news during an eight-hour podcast ("Elon Musk: Neuralink and the Future of Humanity") hosted by MIT research scientist Lex Fridman, which also featured Neuralink co-founder DJ Seo, neurosurgeon Matthew MacDougall, brain interface software lead Bliss Chapman, and Noland Arbaugh, the first human test recipient of the device.

Neuralink, based in Fremont, California, aims to assist people with spinal cord injuries, providing them with new ways to interact with technology and gain independence. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop. The company plans to extend the use of its device to eight additional patients this year as part of its ongoing clinical trials.

During the podcast, Musk expressed optimism about the second implant. “I don’t want to jinx it, but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant,” he said. “There’s a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It’s working very well.”

The identity of the second test subject remains undisclosed. Both Arbaugh and the new subject are part of Neuralink’s "Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface" (PRIME) study. This study, expected to span six years, will test the Telepathy neural implant on eight more patients this year, Musk confirmed.

The company began its first human trial in January with Arbaugh, a 29-year-old quadriplegic who has been paralyzed from the shoulders down for more than eight years. Initially, the operation was successful, enabling Arbaugh to play chess on a laptop by moving the cursor with signals from his brain. However, the company later reported a decrease in data transfer from Arbaugh's brain due to some of the ultra-thin threads retracting from his motor cortex post-surgery, which reduced the number of effective electrodes. Neuralink has made adjustments to restore the implant's functionality, the company says.

The "Neuralink chip," which was designed to enable communication between the human brain and computers or machines, was actually implanted in the subject's skull. From the cosmetically invisible implant, wires roughly 20 times thinner than a human hair spread out into the brain. During a 2020 Neuralink progress update presentation, Musk described it as "a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires."

Before Arbaugh received his implant in January, he used a stick held in his mouth to tap the screen of a tablet device. He described his initial experience with the implant during the podcast, highlighting the moment he first saw his neuron activity on a tablet.

"So, I started trying to wiggle my fingers and I just started scanning through the channels, and one of the things I was doing was moving my index finger up and down, and I just saw this yellow spike on top row," Arbaugh recalled. "And everyone around me was just like, 'What are you seeing?' I was like, 'Look at this one. Look at this top row, third box over this yellow spike. That’s me right there, there, there.... And everyone was freaking out. They started clapping. I was like, 'That’s super unnecessary.' This is what’s supposed to happen, right?"