Elon Musk's Neuralink Implants Brain Chip in Second Patient
The owner of the Neuralink startup, American billionaire Elon Musk, said that the company has successfully implanted its brain chip in a second patient, a device designed to enable paralysed patients to use digital devices with their minds, Reuters reports.
It is noted that Neuralink is in the process of testing its device designed to help people with spinal cord injuries.
Earlier, the device allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the Internet, post on social media and move the cursor on his laptop.
During an 8-hour podcast published on Friday, 2 August, Elon Musk spoke about the second participant. According to him, the person had a spinal cord injury similar to that of the first patient, who was paralysed while diving. Musk said that the 400 electrodes of the implant in the second patient's brain were working. Neuralink says on its website that its implant uses 1024 electrodes.
"Everything seems to have gone very well with the second implant," Musk told podcast host Lex Friedman. "There's a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It's working very well."
Musk did not say when Neuralink operated on the second patient. He said he expects Neuralink to provide implants to eight more patients this year as part of its clinical trials.
As a reminder, Elon Musk announced the first successful implantation of a Neuralink wireless brain chip in a human on 30 January this year. In March, Neuralink showed the first patient with the brain chip playing online chess with the help of his mind.
In May of this year, Neuralink received approval to implant a second patient with the brain chip.