Elon Musk’s neuroscience startup Neuralink has had a string of successes with its first human test subject who had a chip installed in his brain. However, it hasn’t been flawless. On Wednesday, the company described an issue with the implant that it claims has since been solved.
The problem stemmed from the threads of the implant, the company said in a new blog post. Following a successful demo of the system in a volunteer patient, these threads somehow retracted from the brain and caused some data loss. The company says it modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive and made some other tweaks in order to increase the flow of data.
Back in January, Noland Arbaugh was the first person to have the implant installed and he has shown some remarkable progress since. Arbaugh, who became a quadriplegic after an accident in 2016, has been able to do a variety of tasks with just his mind. So far, he’s been able to browse the internet, use his computer, and play video games such as Chess, Civilization VI, and Mario Kart 8 on the Nintendo Switch, according to the blog post.
Neuralink says it wants to expand on Arbaugh’s abilities in the future. The goals include being able to type as well as control robotic arms, wheelchairs, and other tech with just his brain.
Musk’s neuroscience startup may be on a roll now, but it did hit some snags before installing its implant onto Arbaugh’s brain. Neuralink was hit with fines for transporting hazardous materials and has been accused of torturing monkeys in experiments leading up to the human trial.
Dr. Benjamin Rapoport, the co-founder of Neuralink, said last week that he left the company due to safety concerns. He said the method used to install implants had the drawback of causing brain damage. He recently founded his own company, Precision Neuroscience, to develop a way to extract information from the brain without damaging it.
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