Brain-chip becomes reality as paralysed patient plays chess using thoughts

The company created a brain chip that can be implanted in people. This chip allows people with paralysis to control computers with their thoughts.

In a recent demonstration, Neuralink presented the first patient, Noland Arbaugh, who has been implanted with a brain-chip. 

Noland was paralyzed below the shoulder due to a diving accident. The 29-year-old man who cannot move his arms played chess on a computer using this chip. Noland used his thoughts to control the cursor on a laptop, thanks to the Neuralink device.

Noland was discharged from the hospital the next day without any cognitive issues. He shared also how he had lost the ability to play a favourite game, Civilization VI, but with Neuralink's help, he regained this ability and played for eight hours straight.

"The surgery was super easy," Arbaugh said in the video streamed on Musk's social media platform X.

"I literally was released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairments.

"I had basically given up playing that game," Arbaugh said, referring to the game Civilization VI, "you all (Neuralink) gave me the ability to do that again and played for 8 hours straight."

Some experts say this is an exciting development, but others say it is still early days for this technology. Kip Ludwig, a former program director for neural engineering at the US National Institutes of Health, cautioned that while this development is positive, it's still in its early stages.

"It is still in the very early days post-implantation, and there is a lot of learning on both the Neuralink side and the subject's side to maximize the amount of information for control that can be achieved," Ludwig said.

"It's certainly a good starting point," he said.

There have also been questions about the safety testing of these chips.