The first patient fitted with a Neuralink brain chip can now control a computer mouse using their thoughts, Elon Musk has announced.
The tech billionaire’s company is exploring the use of implants to allow people with limited or no use of their hands to control phones and computers with just their minds.
Musk revealed last month that the first patient had been fitted with its Telepathy device.
On Monday, he told a virtual event on X: “Progress is good, the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of.
“Patient is able to move the mouse around the screen by just thinking.”
READ MORE: Ukraine claims Russia using Elon’s Musk’s Starlink in bloody frontline battle
Neuralink is now trying to control as many different mouse actions as possible using the technique, Muck said.
He added: “That’s what we’re currently working on. Can you get left mouse, right mouse, mouse down, mouse up? Which is needed if you want to click and drag something.”
The implant was fitted in a region of the brain that controls movement and intention using a surgical robot.
Once in place, the “cosmetically invisible” implant records and transmits brain signals wirelessly to an app that decodes movement intention.
It uses 1,024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads, each thinner than a human hair.
The firm is recruiting people aged over 22 who are paralysed due to cervical spinal cord injury of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for the first human trials.
Those who already have implants such as a pacemaker are not eligible.
Describing his ambitions for the technology, Musk previously said: “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”
The first study is expected to take around six years to complete, with patients undergoing regular monitoring.
