The First Neuralink Patient | Noland Arbaugh - World Governments Summit

You have a chip with little threads planted in your frontal cortex. He is Noland Arbaugh, first recipient of Neuralink. I have a chip that was implanted onto my skull. And there are 64 threads with 16 electrodes on each thread. So now I can control the computer with my thoughts. What other things are you doing with your mind? Ten years ago, you had a freak accident. It left you without the ability to move or feel beneath the shoulders. You heard about Neuralink, Elon Musk's famous project. You didn't think you'd ever be considered. It sounds like you kind of joked in your introductory notes to him. It turns out they were looking for a needle in the haystack, somebody who was healthy, somebody who was sharp of mind, and somebody who was willing to be the first patient. You're the needle. Tell us what a difference it's made. And tell us exactly what happened. You have a chip with little threads planted in your frontal cortex. Yeah. So like you said, I never thought I would be selected ever. I had applied for quite a few studies, spinal cord injury studies, things of that nature, the big database, and I never heard back. So something with Elon Musk's name attached to it, it just seemed like a different world. I never thought I would be in this position, but I guess they were looking for someone like me. I don't know why. I don't know what that means exactly. But yeah. So how it works, like you said, I have a chip that was implanted onto my skull. And there are 64 threads with 16 electrodes on each thread. I think that's about right. Implanted in my motor cortex on my left side of my brain, specifically correlating to my right hand movement. Obviously I can't really move, but all the signals are still there. When we did an fMRI, it's just what lit up most on the scans. And so now I can control the computer with my thoughts. That's kind of the very basic level of it all. Yeah. And as you control the computer with your mind, what types of things you're doing? You're obviously proficient at video games. What other things are you doing with your mind? Yeah. So video games came first. It was something that I had a passion for before my accident. I had a lot of fun playing games. It's one of the first things that I did after I got full control of the Neuralink. I just played video games for hours and it was great. But over the years, not having spent a lot of time playing video games for eight years, I quickly moved on to other things, how I could improve my life, what I could do now that I couldn't before. Controlling a computer, I think a lot of people take for granted what they're able to do, what they can do with just a computer. For me, it became reconnecting with the world in some way, whether that's through social media or texting or emailing. I just was reconnecting with my friends and family and people who I'd never met, doing interviews and all sorts of things. And I was scheduling everything. And then moving on to starting a business, what that looks like. Am I capable of it? And it turns out I can do a lot more than I thought I could. One of the cool things about this conference is the focus on the future. When you talk to Elon Musk, when you talk to your friends at Neuralink and you think about the future for you, what's a realistic outcome? Will you get to movement? How optimistic are they? Very optimistic. I am not sure it's going to happen in my lifetime. I tell people, I think in my estimation, 10 to 20 years, it's possible. They're already doing work with implanting a chip in the brain and one below the level of injury in the spinal cord. And essentially, they speak to each other and skip that break and you would be able to regain movement. I've said in interviews before that I think there will come a day where people can come into a hospital with a spinal cord injury and walk out the next day. There are obviously some problems that need to be solved there, but I think it's incredibly realistic. I don't think it's sci-fi anymore. So maybe one day it'll happen for me. I'm not sure exactly what that looks like, how many implants you'll need in the brain. Obviously, I have mine in a very specific spot. You'll need more threads. You'll need more electrodes on different parts of the brain. But that is, I don't think, a very difficult problem. It's just about getting the surgeries done and then someone would be able to walk again with the power of Neuralink. I think it's very, very possible. What's realistic in the next year or two for you that has you most excited, hopeful? I think it's just improving a device, being able to control more in my environment. The Neuralink uses a Bluetooth connection, so really you can control anything with a Bluetooth connection. I've told people many times that as things come off the assembly line, Alexa compatible, I think someday it'll be their Neuralink compatible. As long as the app is uploaded on the device, you would be able to connect to it and control it. So that's what I'm looking forward to, being able to just control more with my Neuralink, the wheelchair would be a pretty cool next step. I've told them plenty of times that I am more than happy to test it out when they figure it out. I am not near any bodies of water or traffic. I think that is a really cool next step for them.