Elon Musk’s startup, Neuralink, has revealed that the device placed in the brain of its first human patient experienced some difficulties a few weeks after surgery. The chip was implanted in Noland Arbaugh, a quadriplegic man who was able to play video and computer games using his mind.
The Neuralink implant enables a patient to use their thoughts to control a computer
The Neuralink implant enables a patient to use their thoughts to control a computer. However, in a blog post on Wednesday, the business stated that the amount of data it was receiving from the gadget had decreased.
Some data was lost because several of the implant’s threads retracted. Neuralink’s device, known as the Link, uses 1,024 electrodes spread across 64 threads that are “thinner than a human hair.”
However, after some threads were retracted, the company’s ability to assess the Link’s speed and precision was seriously compromised. However, Neuralink did not disclose how many threads retracted from the tissue.
The patient personally reported the implant problem
“In response to this change, we modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements, and enhanced the user interface. These refinements produced a rapid and sustained improvement in BPS (bits per second) that has now superseded Noland’s initial performance,” the company said in the blog post.
It also stated that, despite the retraction of threads, Arbaugh is using the company’s system for approximately eight hours per day during the week and as many as ten hours per day on weekends.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Arbaugh personally reported the implant problem. Neuralink investigated removing the implant, according to the publication, but the issue hasn’t posed a direct risk to the man’s safety.
The device was implanted in January 2024, and Neuralink streamed a live video with Arbaugh in March. According to the firm, the surgery went “extremely well.”
