First human fitted with a Neuralink mind chip says tech is ‘going to alter the world’

Noland Arbaugh was fitted with Musk’s Neuralink brain chip after an accident in 2016 left him paralysed, and now he can control a computer using his mind – which has changed his life

The first human fitted with a Neuralink brain chip said the technology is ‘going to change the world’.

Noland Arbaugh received the implant from Elon Musk’s firm last year after being left paralysed following an accident. When he was a 22-year-old student in 2016 he was working at a kids’ summer camp in upstate New York when he went swimming in a lake.

While he couldn’t remember what exactly happened, he thinks one of his friends must have accidentally struck him very hard in the side of his head as they ran into the water and plunged beneath the surface. The incident left him paralysed.

After eight years, Noland agreed to allow the world’s richest man to implant an electronic chip into his brain – made by Musk’s company, Neuralink.

It allows him to control a computer using his mind. At first he said all he wanted to do was play video games. “It blew my mind,” he said. “Just that one little taste made me realise that this technology is going to change the world. Sometimes I forget how impressive it is because it’s so natural to me.”

Getting the chip fitted was a risky procedure. A robot would insert the N1 chip into his motor cortex. He was risking infection, haemorrhage and brain damage, The Guardian reported.

After the operation, Noland still does four hours a day of what he calls “session” work for Neuralink. He does varied exercises such as clicking targets on a screen to fine-tune the cursor control.

He soon got used to it. At first, he used what he calls “attempted” movements: he would try to move his hand and the cursor would move where he was trying to get his hand to go.

But then he became able to direct it with “imagined” movements: he was no longer trying to move anything apart from the cursor itself. He described it a little as “telekinesis.”

Now, after saying the words “implant connect” he is able to use a computer – all without moving his body. He can play games, check X, open his DMs, surf the internet just through his mind.