Stroke patient with brain chip played chess with the power of thought

• Stroke patient with brain chip played chess with the power of thought

Noland Arbaugh, paralyzed from the neck down with a brain chip implanted by Neuralink, a neurotechnology company owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, successfully played chess online using the power of thought.

American billionaire Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink has pioneered a new breakthrough in science. After being paralyzed from the neck down following an accident while diving, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh managed to use a computer thanks to a chip implanted in his brain called “telepathy,” which was implanted in January. Arbaugh, who succeeded in controlling the computer cursor with his mind, played chess online.

Speaking during Neuralink’s live broadcast, Arbaugh, who expressed his love for playing chess, stated that he couldn’t play after the accident. Arbaugh, who used a stick held with his mouth to use the computer before the brain chip was implanted, said, “Now I’m doing it only with my brain. Can you see the movements of the cursor on the screen?” Responding to the Neuralink engineer’s words “Can you stop the music?” during the live broadcast, Arbaugh stopped the music, saying, “I’m doing all of it. Pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Arbaugh, who mentioned that the company enabled him to play games continuously for 8 hours, also added that this technology is not perfect and they face some problems.

The company aims to connect the human brain to a computer.
It is known that the Neuralink device, the size of a coin, is implanted in the skull with microscopic wires capable of reading neuron movements and sending signals to a receiver wirelessly. The company first tested the chip on pigs and monkeys, claiming that monkeys could play simple video games. In May, Neuralink, which was granted permission by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test the chip on humans, aims to connect the human brain to a computer to overcome complex neurological conditions.