THE first human patient to receive Elon Musk's Neuralink brain chip is seen playing chess with his mind in a wild new video.
It's the first footage that has been shared of a human who got the Neuralink implant, which aims to enable someone to control their phone or another device with their thoughts.
Musk reposted a Neuralink live stream on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday and captioned the 9-minute video, "Livestream of @Neuralink demonstrating 'Telepathy' – controlling a computer and playing video games just by thinking."
In the clip, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh sat next to a Neuralink engineer, who introduced Arbaugh as the "first-ever user of the Neuralink device."
Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, explained that a "freak diving accident" eight years ago dislocated two of his vertebrae, causing him to be paralyzed from the neck down.
Elon Musk makes history by becoming the first person in the world to lose $200bn
Neuralink's mission is to restore autonomy to individuals who have "unmet medical needs" with a vision to "unlock human potential" in the future, the company has said.
Having received FDA clearance for its first human clinical trials in May 2023, Arbaugh is the first of six individuals approved to test the chip after hundreds of animal tests.
In the video, Arbaugh shows off his chess skills without ever touching the computer it is being hosted on.
"I love playing chess, so this is one of the things that ya'll have enabled me to do, something I wasn't able to really do much the last few years," he said.
"It's all being done with my brain. See that cursor on the screen?" he said while the Neuralink engineer panned to the computerized chess game.
"That's all me... it's all brainpower."
The engineer then asked him to pause music that could be heard in the background, and Arbaugh did so "with his brain."
Arbaugh went on to explain how he learned to use the brain chip.
"So we started out by trying a few different things," he said.
"We basically went from what we call 'imagined movement' versus 'attempted movement,' so a lot of what we started out with was attempting to move, say my right hand.
Taiwan reveals Elon Musk-style plot to resist China using 'army of satellites'
"From there, it just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving. Basically, it was like using the force on a cursor and I could get it to move wherever I wanted it to.
"Just stare somewhere on the screen and it would move where I wanted it to."
The human test subject shared the feeling he got when he first moved the computer cursor telepathically.
"It was such a wild experience ... it's crazy, it really is. It's so cool.
"I'm so freaking lucky to be a part of this, every day it seems like we're learning new stuff."
'CHANGED MY LIFE'
Arbaugh said he went on to play one of his favorite video games, Civilization VI, for eight hours after he learned to use the tech.
He'd previously had to ask one of his family members to help him if he wanted to play the game.
"Now I can just lie in bed and play to my heart's content," he said while noting that he does have to let the implant recharge every 8 hours or so.
Arbaugh said with his newfound skill, he plans to be Professor X from the X-Men series for Halloween this year.
"Not only because he's in a wheelchair, but now I'm actually a telekinetic, basically, so it's going to be cool."
Arbaugh did admit toward the end of the video that the process hasn't been perfect.
"We have run into some issues. ... There's still a lot of work to be done but it has already changed my life."
He said that the implant surgery was "super easy" and he was released from the hospital a day later.
Arbaugh encouraged others to be unafraid should they want to support a mission like Neuralink's.
"I think they are going to change the world and I'm happy to be a part of it," he said.
Although the only one experiencing it firsthand, Arbaugh is not the only one amazed by the technology's success so far.
"Absolutely amazing inspiring stuff. Someday this will help paralyzed people walk again," wrote one user.
"Another Elon Musk company that improves the condition of human! Elon loves humanity! His results speak for themselves!" added another user.
"The potential of Neuralink to improve lives is phenomenal. Great job Neuralink," read another comment.
HUMAN TEST SUBJECT CONTROVERSY
While Arbaugh is all smiles now, having more accessibility to tasks and recreation than he did before Neuralink, news of the chip being implanted in its first human subject was met with division.
In a speech at the company headquarters in December, Musk spoke about the speed at which Neuralink would move forward with human testing.
"We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work before putting a device into a human," he said.
"The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel."
In late January, Musk posted an announcement that Arbaugh's procedure had been completed, bringing about mixed reactions from the public.
Many people had reservations about the technology moving to human subjects.
"The negative potential of this makes me very uneasy," one person wrote in a reply to Musk's X post.
"I'm terrified by the thought of it," said another.
"The first cyborg has been born," another person wrote.
Others, meanwhile, were astounded by the advancement and shared their excitement about seeing the results.
"Well done Neuralink and Elon!! This might very well turn out to be an important moment in history," wrote one user.
"This is awesome news, we’re expanding on the two final frontiers. Space and the mind, can’t wait for the next company talk. So excited!" another said.
'EXTREME SUFFERING' IN ANIMAL TRIALS
Before its human trials, Neuralink implanted its Bluetooth-enabled chips into the brains of monkeys.
In April 2021, the company shared a video of one monkey test subject, known as Pager, playing Pong.
The macaque was seen using a joystick manually and then operating it with its mind via the Neuralink chip.
The trials involving monkeys were met with backlash as some were said to have "suffered infections from the implanted electrodes placed in their brains," a complaint filed by The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said.
The group lodged the complaint with the USDA while claiming it had evidence that macaques used in trials endured horrific suffering.
The USDA opened a federal investigation under the Animal Welfare Act in 2022, Reuters reported.
As many as 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys, reportedly died as a result of Neuralink tests since 2018, Reuters reported, citing records it reviewed.
Neuralink was accused of subjecting animals, including a monkey that had holes drilled in its skull, to "extreme suffering."
The company conducted its monkey experiments in partnership with the University of California, Davis.
"No monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant. First, our early implants, to minimize risk to healthy monkeys, we chose terminal monkeys (sic) (close to death already)," Musk previously said on X.
