Elon Musk Updates on Neuralink’s First Human Trial Participant

On February 20, Elon Musk discussed Neuralink’s first human trial participant during a live Spaces event on Clubhouse, stating that the progress is promising. According to Musk, the patient seems to have fully recovered, with minimal known neurological side effects.

He mentioned that the participant can now move a mouse on the screen purely through thoughts, essentially controlling the mouse with their mind. Neuralink is currently working on enabling the participant to “press buttons as much as possible with their thoughts,” which may involve tasks such as moving the computer mouse up and down to drag boxes on the screen.

Neuralink had previously announced its recruitment of the first group of participants for human clinical trials, targeting individuals paralyzed due to cervical spinal cord injuries or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Patients with the Neuralink implant will be able to control computers and smartphones solely through their thoughts. The first product from Neuralink has been aptly named “Telepathy” due to this functionality.

In 2021, Neuralink released a video showcasing a nine-year-old macaque named Pager playing a video game of ping pong using only his thoughts as a demonstration of the powerful capabilities of Telepathy.

“It will allow you to control your phone or computer just by thinking about it, enabling indirect control of nearly any device. The initial users will be those with impaired limb function. Just imagine if Professor Hawking could communicate faster than a typist or an auctioneer. That’s our goal,” Musk explained on social media platforms.