The first patient with a Neuralink chip in his brain played chess with the power of thought

Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink showed videoon which the first person with a neurochip implanted in the brain plays online chess.

The hero of the broadcast is 29-year-old Nolan Arbo. Eight years ago, he was paralyzed below the shoulder as a result of an accident. At the end of January, a Neuralink chip was implanted in his brain. On February 20, the company said that Arbo learned to control the cursor of a computer mouse on the screen with the help of thought.

Kip Ludwig, the former director of the neuroengineering program at the US National Institutes of Health, said in a Reuters commentary that the result of Neuralink cannot be considered a breakthrough. According to Ludwig, too little time has passed since the operation, the company and the patient will have to learn a lot. However, Ludwig noted a positive effect for patients who can now interact with the computer.

Elon Musk created Neuralink in 2016. Three years later, the company demonstrated a prototype chip. Last May, Neuralink received approval from the American medical regulator to test the chip on humans. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration found problems with the company’s record-keeping and quality control of animal experiments.