“Yesterday, the first human received a Neuralink implant and is recovering,” Musk wrote on the X social network (in a former tweet).
February 21 E. Musk also announced that the first person to be implanted with a Neuralink brain chip has fully recovered and can control a computer mouse with his mind, The Guardian wrote.
“Progress is good and the patient appears to have made a full recovery with no ill effects that we are aware of.” The patient is able to move the mouse on the screen just by thinking,” Musk said at the Spaces event on the X platform.
However, one month after implantation, the functionality of the device began to decline. Some of the wires in the device connecting the miniature computer to the brain began to fray and recede.
Neuralink did not disclose why the device partially retracted from the patient’s brain. The company said in its blog that its engineers improved the implant and restored its functionality, according to The Guardian.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the problem with the chip, the reduced capabilities do not pose a risk to the patient, and he can still use the implant to play chess on a computer using his mind.
According to a post on Neuralink’s blog, the patient’s implant ran into problems in late February when a number of the chip’s filaments “pulled away from the brain, reducing the net number of effective electrodes.”
As a result, the number of bits per second of the device decreased, which basically indicates how well the implant can perform its tasks. Because of this, the possibility of removing the implant was considered, the Journal reported.
The company Neuralink widely touted the success of its first implant, positioning itself as the global leader in brain chip technology. Although the device is still in its early stages, the company’s disclosures draw more attention to the complex nature of the experimental procedure.
During a demonstration in March, a patient praised the implant and said it had “already changed his life”, but also said it wasn’t perfect and they had “run into some issues”.
