Elon Musk’s Neuralink Encounters Hurdle: First Human Implant Retraction

Elon Musk’s Neuralink said on Wednesday that a setback had occurred with the first implant in a human when many threads capturing brain activity pulled out of the brain. Reported in a corporate blog post, the incident happened weeks after the late January surgery that implanted Neuralink hardware into 29-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh.

Arbaugh’s capacity to use his brain to control a computer cursor was hampered by this retraction, which reduced the effective electrodes. Significant performance improvement was achieved by Neuralink’s response of improving the user interface, signal translation, and recording algorithm.

Neuralink considered the possibility of taking the implant out even if it doesn’t endanger Arbaugh’s safety. But it has let the FDA know about a possible fix. Notwithstanding the setback, Arbaugh has shown remarkable skills, such as playing online games and using mind-controlled cursor motions to navigate the internet. Installing the implant a little more than 100 days ago was a big step forward for Neuralink.