Unlike the first patient, the brain chip has remained fully attached to the second patient’s brain.
ADVERTISEMENTThe second human with a Neuralink brain chip is using the implant to play the PC game Counter-Strike 2.
Elon Musk’s company gave a progress update on Wednesday about on its second patient “Alex,” who received the brain chip last month and has had a “smooth” recovery.
He lost control of his limbs after a spinal cord injury.
Before he received the implant, he played Counter-Strike 2 with a mouth-operated controller called QuadStick but could not move and shoot at the same time. However, with the chip he can remotely control a mouse on his laptop to aim and use the QuadStick to move at the same time.
Neuralink said that, unlike Noland Arbaugh, the first patient to receive a brain chip, the implant has also remained fully attached to the patient’s brain.
Despite Arbaugh’s successful surgery, 85 per cent of the thread-based electrodes attached to his brain became displaced. Despite this, he can still use the implant effectively.
Neuralink said for Alex it had reduced some of the mitigations to avoid the issue and that it had observed no thread retraction.
Alex also used the implant to develop 3D designs, such as a holder for the electric charger for his implant, which was then 3D-printed.
“Taking an idea, putting it as a design, and actually having a physical item as a finished product makes me feel like I’m building things again,” Alex said.
Neuralink said it is working on developing the controls of the technology “to deliver full mouse and video game controller functionality”.
