Arbaugh claims that the chip has changed his life. Image Credit: Twitter / Neuralink
For the first time, footage has emerged showing the capabilities of Elon Musk's Neuralink brain-computer interface chip.
Having previously been described by Musk as an answer to the existential threat of an artificial intelligence surpassing our own capabilities, Neuralink's work in enabling people to control computers using nothing but their own thoughts has certainly raised a few eyebrows in recent years.
At a glance, it may seem like an unnecessary exercise in dabbling a bit too far beyond the line that most people are likely to feel comfortable with, yet it does have the potential to make great strides in improving the lives of those with a variety of debilitating medical conditions ranging from locked-in-syndrome to paralysis.
This was made particularly clear this week when footage emerged on social media of Noland Arbaugh - a 29-year-old who became paralyzed from the neck down in a driving accident 8 years ago.
The video shows Arbaugh - who has received one of Neuralink's brain implants - playing a game of chess on a computer using nothing more than his own thoughts to make his moves.
He likened the experience to using "The Force" from Star Wars to move the pieces on the board.
The capabilities afforded him by the chip aren't limited to playing chess, either, as he also claimed to have been able to play popular strategy game Civilization VI for 8 hours straight.
Elon Musk seemed to be particularly impressed with what the chip could do, having retweeted the footage while noting that it demonstrated "telepathy".
Arbaugh himself stated that the brain chip has changed his life, but that the team behind the achievement had run into some issues and that there was "still a lot of work to be done".
How long someone will live with that implant is the biggest question there and the reliability of the device. You don't do brain surgery for fun... it need to works for a pretty long time to be something practical.
It will be interesting to see the capabilities of neuralink develop over the next couple of decades. While this particular development isn’t really noteworthy (reason being a wired neural implant was used 20 years ago to move a cursor, per an aside in the video), the implications are significant.
So, how do we know it was the host and not the chip playing the chess game? At least as hard to test as augmented athletics, a person with a chip implant could tap into millions of chess games played for the best moves. It could never be allowed in competition.. A chipped college student could outperform a non-chipped student on every essay and test. Put in a math co-processor and a graphics card and they could even do engineering, physics, mathematics, and CAD design all with their mind.. In a decade, will a person without a chip be as limited in employment as a person with ... [More]
I truly hope this works out for him. He mentioned there had been some issues, but did not get into specifics. My primary concern is that if something goes terribly wrong and is not an easy fix, the possibility of some damage to the brain is high. Fingers crossed though that there are no serious short or long term issues and that the implant will help him enjoy a higher quality of life.
Here's one neurosurgeon's take on what might have gone wrong: Experts suggest that the complication could be related to Neuralink's unique design, where the electrode-studded threads connect to a device positioned within the skull bone rather than on the surface of the brain tissue. Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, noted that even minor head movements could cause significant displacement within the brain. He explained that brain implants traditionally rest on top of the brain tissue, allowing them to move more fluidly with the brain's nat... [More]
Please Login or Register to post a comment.