ARIZONA, USA — An Arizona man from Yuma is at the forefront of one of the most high-profile and controversial advances in technology: a Neuralink brain chip.
Elon Musk recently announced that the first human implant from his computer-brain interface company was a success, but the recipient's identity and health had been a closely guarded secret. Until now.
On Wednesday, Neuralink posted a video on X revealing that former Texas A&M University athlete Noland Arbaugh was the first-ever human trial patient.
Arbaugh, 29, was paralyzed in a "freak diving accident" in 2016 that dislocated parts of his spine. He has no sensation below his shoulders after the accident and has no use of his limbs.
But now, Arbaugh has a new option. A surgical operation implanted a small chip in Arbaugh's brain, and he's already adept at using it.
The nine-minute video shows him manipulating a mouse cursor, pausing music and playing digital chess, all with his mind. As soon as he was given full control, Arbaugh stayed up all night playing his favorite video games, he said.
"It's all brain power up there," Arbaugh said with a massive smile on his face. After intensive training "It just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving. Basically, it was like using the force on a cursor and I could get it to move wherever I wanted it to."
Neuralink is one of many groups working on linking the nervous system to computers, efforts aimed at helping treat brain disorders, overcoming brain injuries and other applications. There are more than 40 brain-computer interface trials underway, according to clinicaltrials.gov.
"I think I'm gonna be Professor X," Arbaugh joked. "It's not perfect, we have run into some issues. I don't want people to think this is the end of the journey. There's a lot of work to be done but it has already changed my life."
He said that the surgery was "super easy" and he was released from the hospital the next day. He's had no cognitive impairments and is excited for what comes next.
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