This afternoon, Elon Musk’s Neuralink introduced the world to its first human clinical trial participant: Nolan, a 29-year-old who became a quadriplegic following a diving accident eight years ago.
The Neuralink chip, implanted in Nolan’s brain, has enabled him to play chess and control his Apple MacBook Pro cursor with his mind, which is pretty insane.
Nolan shared that the Neuralink implant surgery was “super easy,” being released just one day later without any cognitive impairments. He said having a Neuralink implant was “really awesome”; he also expressed his gratitude towards Neuralink for making such a transformative experience possible.
“It already changed my life,” Nolan said to Neuralink engineer Bliss on the X livestream, encouraging others to participate in or support the trials. He highlighted the ease of controlling the cursor through imagined movements, likening it to using “the force,” and expressed his excitement and fortune at being part of this pioneering project.
Beyond chess, Nolan has regained the ability to play video games like Civilization 6 until the early morning like 6am, something he had given up hope of doing due to his condition. The implant has also facilitated his passion for learning languages, with Japanese and French now within his grasp. The biggest limitation he noted was the need to recharge the Neuralink implant every 8 hours, but even this minor inconvenience was not a big deal.
Looking ahead, Nolan humorously mentioned his plans to dress as Professor X for Halloween, jokingly noting his newfound telekinetic abilities. He compared using his new capabilities like “the force” in Star Wars.
The Neuralink implant supports Bluetooth and connects to an iPhone. You can see in the video below Nolan showing he can play chess again on his MacBook Pro, but we didn’t see any controlling of Civilization 6.
— Neuralink (@neuralink) March 20, 2024
At some point, the goal of Neuralink is to allow those paralyzed to control their body again, or let people who are blind see again. It’s so fascinating to see how this tech is evolving and changing humanity.
