Neuralink has successfully implanted its device, designed to give paralysed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, in a second patient, according to startup owner Elon Musk.
Neuralink is testing its device, which aims to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media, and move the cursor on his laptop.
Musk provided little information about the second participant in comments made during a more than eight-hour podcast late Friday, saying only that the man had suffered a spinal cord injury similar to that of the first patient, who was paralyzed in a diving accident. Musk said the implant’s 400 electrodes on the second patient’s brain were working. Neuralink says on its website that its implant uses 1,024 electrodes.
“I don’t want to sound ominous, but it seems to have gone pretty well with the second implant,” Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman. “There’s a lot of signals, a lot of electrodes. It’s working pretty well.”
Musk did not say when Neuralink performed surgery on the second patient. Musk said he expects Neuralink to provide implants to eight more patients this year as part of its clinical trials.
The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, was also interviewed on the podcast, as well as three Neuralink executives, who provided detailed information about how the implant and the robot-powered surgery work.
Before Arbaugh got the implant in January, he used a computer by tapping on the screen of a tablet device with a stick in his mouth. With the implant, he can now simply think about what he wants to do on the computer screen, and the device does it, Arbaugh said. He said the device has given him a little more independence and reduced his dependence on caregivers.
Arbaugh initially faced problems after his surgery when the tiny wires in his implant backed out, resulting in a sharp loss of sensitivity to the electrodes that measure brain signals. Reuters has reported that Neuralink was aware of this problem from its animal tests.
Neuralink has said it has restored the implant’s ability to monitor Arbaugh’s brain signals, including making modifications to its algorithms to make them more sensitive. Musk said on the podcast that Arbaugh has improved on his previous world record in the speed at which he can control the cursor with thoughts alone “with only about 10, 15% of the electrodes working.”
Musk also said he has spoken to Republican candidate Donald Trump, whom he has supported in the US presidential race, about forming a commission aimed at improving “government efficiency” through less business regulation, and that he would be willing to take part. Musk said that in his view US regulation hinders innovation.
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