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Neuralink's First Patient with Brain Implant Stayed Awake All Night Playing Civilization 6
Elon Musk's Neuralink has reached a groundbreaking milestone with its first human recipient of a brain implant, who shared new details about their experience and improvement in life with the experimental assistive technology, including the ability to stay up all night playing Sid Meier's Civilization 6. Let's delve into these intriguing details together.
In January, Elon Musk, co-founder of Neuralink, announced on X/Twitter that the company had successfully implanted its first brain-computer interface into a human patient's head and that the patient had "recovered well" from the surgery.
The billionaire also hinted at the implant working well and detecting a 'promising increase in neurons.' In a subsequent update in February, Musk mentioned that an unnamed patient had apparently fully recovered and could even control a computer cursor just by thinking, using the implant.
Finally, on March 20th, Neuralink released its own update in the form of a nine-minute live stream.
29-year-old implant recipient Noland Arbaugh discussed how he used the technology to play a digital version of chess and how living with the experimental assistive technology changed his life. Arbaugh described it as similar to using power on a cursor, allowing him to move it wherever he wanted by just looking at the screen, calling it a 'wild experience.'
The 29-year-old fully quadriplegic patient, who lost his senses and experienced paralysis below the shoulders eight years ago in a diving accident, shared his desire to be part of something that "could change the world" and volunteered to try the technology.
Throughout the live stream, Arbaugh could be seen controlling a cursor on the screen and playing digital chess using the Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI), even pausing background music.
Arbaugh also mentioned how the implant gave him the freedom to play Sid Meier's Civilization 6 strategy game all night long, something he could never do on his own before the surgery.
He expressed his satisfaction with the technology by saying, 'In one of the first moments where you gave me full control over this [Neuralink technology], I played Civilization 6 until 6 in the morning. It was worth it; I guess that's the best way to put it, it was amazing.'
Arbaugh explained that before the surgery, he had largely given up playing Civilization 6 because he needed "full assistance" from a friend and the time-focused nature of the game made long gaming sessions unfeasible.
He mentioned, 'So playing a full game was not possible for me,' and added, 'Now I can literally lie in my bed and play as much as I want. Honestly, the biggest limitation at this point was waiting for the implant to recharge after using it fully.'
The 29-year-old also mentioned in a Neuralink presentation broadcasted on X that the implant allowed him to play Mario Kart 8: Deluxe by deciphering neural signals using BCI technology, saying,
'Playing Mario Kart and repeatedly coming in second blew my mind, I didn't think this could be possible [...] I've been using it for a week, it's been crazy. Even though my dad and friend wouldn't let me win.'
The implant also helped Noland start learning French and Japanese and removed overall barriers in reading.
He emphasized that he didn't experience any 'cognitive impairments' after the procedure and was able to leave the hospital a day after the two-hour surgery.
"It's not perfect, I can say we've encountered some issues," commented the 29-year-old.
'I don't want people to think this is the end of the journey; there's still a lot of work to be done, but it's already changed my life...'
Shortly after Neuralink's video release, Musk visited X to reiterate his ambitious long-term plan for the technology.
The billionaire hopes that eventually implants will be able to 'bridge' signals directly from the patient's motor cortex to the relevant part of the body to bypass damaged spinal cord sections and regain lost mobility due to paralysis.
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