A video released on social media shows the patient using his mind to move pieces around the board.
Neuralink, the neurotechnology company that developed the implantable brain–computer interfaces, has released a video showing how the chip works on a patient who is paralysed from the shoulders down.
29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, who was left disabled in a car accident eight years ago, became the first human being to receive the brain chip in January.
The nine-minute clip shows Noland, who is accompanied by a Neuralink engineer, moving the cursor across the laptop screen without using his hands.
He appears to focus his attention on the action required and, using his thoughts, control what takes place on the screen.
Noland has been dependent on others for much of his care. But now he can play computer games and control music.
This is exhibited in the video by Noland who shows his chess skills using only his mind, and turns the music playing from his laptop down when it becomes too distracting.
The company, which was co-founded by Elon Musk, will hope that advertising the benefits of the chip on someone with a disability will overshadow the backlash it received recently over its animal test subjects.
Musk reposted the video with the captain: “Livestream of @Neuralink demonstrating ‘Telepathy’ – controlling a computer and playing video games just by thinking.”
Speaking in the clip, Arbaugh says: “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.”
“It’s all being done with my brain. See that cursor on the screen?”
He added: “I don’t want people to think that this is the end of the journey, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but it has already changed my life.
“The surgery was super easy,” he continued.
“I literally was released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairments.”
The Neuralink device is roughly the size of a large coin, and connects thread-like electrodes to the brain.
Once implanted, the chip can connect your brain waves to an app and may be able to help people with neurological conditions.
The USDA opened a federal investigation into Neuralink under the Animal Welfare Act in 2022, after the company implanted its Bluetooth-enabled chips into the brains of monkeys.
Some of the monkeys that the device was tested on reportedly developed severe infections as a result of the implant, and 15 out of 23 died as a result of the test.
In one instance, a monkey was found missing some fingers and toes, possibly caused by self-mutilation, legal papers claimed.
For Noland Arbaugh, life with the chip seems so far so good: “I’m so freaking lucky to be a part of this, every day it seems like we’re learning new stuff,” he said.
He added that his newfound telepathic abilities have inspired him to dress up as Professor X from the X-Men series for Halloween this year.
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