The first Neuralink implant in a human malfunctioned after several threads recording neural activity retracted from the brain, the Elon Musk-owned startup revealed Wednesday.
The threads retracted in the weeks following the surgery in late January that placed the Neuralink hardware in 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh’s brain, the company said in a blog post.
This reduced the number of effective electrodes and the ability of Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, to control a computer cursor with his brain.
“In response to this change, we modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements, and enhanced the user interface,” Neuralink said in the blog post.
The company said the adjustments resulted in a “rapid and sustained improvement” in bits-per-second, a measure of speed and accuracy of cursor control, surpassing Arbaugh’s initial performance.
While the problem doesn’t appear to pose a risk to Arbaugh’s safety, Neuralink reportedly floated the idea of removing his implant, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The company has also told the Food and Drug Administration that it believes it has a solution for the issue that occurred with Arbaugh’s implant, the Journal reported.
The implant was placed just more than 100 days ago. In the blog post, the company touted Arbaugh’s ability to play online computer games, browse the internet, livestream and use other applications “all by controlling a cursor with his mind.”
This is the most Omni Consumer Products situation.
That’s weird. Did he try subscribing to Twitter Blue?
“DAddy mUsk laav mme uskahdkadvbgbdg” said the first Neuralink volunteer, Mr. Guinny A. Peeg.
Dude, the guy is quadriplegic. You might take a chance too if you were quadriplegic.
I’ve got an peripheral nerve implant that was installed on an experimental basis myself. It was not a fangirl situation, it was a “please please please help me with this pain” situation.
Hate Elon or love him, this is pretty cool honestly. I hope it succeeds.
Elon is just the face and money man.
Understand that, and kudos to all the great minds who made this thing a reality.
It’s the first attempt. Failure is gonna happen. This isn’t big news. If they were rolling it out to market that would be different.
Sure failure is gonna happen but neuralink hasn’t been particularly successful with all the primates that have been tested with for previous version either.
Yeah it’s a really difficult problem. The criticism might be that it’s animal cruelty.
The implant failing when the subject’s connected tissue died has always been the best possible outcome from this, tbh.
And yet we’ve been implanting Cochlear devices in humans for eons but you can’t meld a Musk joke out of that so.
This is more than enough to turn me off from the idea of neural anything in the brains of humans. Especially if it’s all being ran by a fledgling sycophant like Musk.
Even if it’s not drastic, I don’t want to know what the worst case scenario would’ve been.
Especially if the extent of it is that it lets you move a mouse. How does that offer any improvement over eye tracking adaptive tech?
Idk… I don’t like Elon, but this is actually incredibly huge overall. he controlled a computer with his mind. That’s amazing for people who could benefit from it. I think it’s worth continuing down this path, just to see how it evolves. I’m sure the man knew the risks and still chose to do it, meaning it was worth it to him.
This isn’t something new to nueralink. Brain-machine interfaces have existed for quite some time. Neuralink is one of a number of companies that are exploring directly implanting these devices rather than using an externally attached (hence, easily removable) interface, but the core thesis of “Brain control computer” isn’t any kind of grand leap forward. That’s just Musk’s marketing.
I saw a dude play chess with his mind where otherwise he couldn’t. I’ve never even heard of tech like this, so it’s 100% new to me lol
Is it because you are unfamiliar with adaptive tech? Eye tracking devices allowing quadriplegic people to interact with computers by looking at them and blinking have been around since at least the mid 00s. Like a decade ago the “mind reading” external tech got cheap enough for simplified toys to be made with it. Implanting it directly into the body is a lot of risk for very little benefit.
I just think it’s cool, but fuck me right?
If you think it’s cool I would hope you think it’s even cooler than you can do this without surgery and that there are literal cheap ass toys you can buy to play with yourself?
Not the person you were responding too but I’d love to learn more about these toys/tech. Are there some key words that would help me search? I’m having some trouble sifting through the search results.
Just because you never heard of it doesn’t mean it hasn’t existed…
released in 2008
shocked Pikachu face
When did they work? Prior to getting approved in humans they were killing animals at a high rate. To the point where animals were smashing their heads against shit to get the chip out.
Additional veterinary reports show the condition of a female monkey called “Animal 15” during the months leading up to her death in March 2019. Days after her implant surgery, she began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason; a symptom of pain or infection, the records say. Staff observed that though she was uncomfortable, picking and pulling at her implant until it bled, she would often lie at the foot of her cage and spend time holding hands with her roommate.
I understand testing on animals is tough but this was straight cruelty.
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/
When I was in college working in a lab, we were worried about accidentally killing frogs with our equipment because we didn’t have anything filed with the IRB about frogs.
Everything with Elon bewilders me. I thought this is why we had regulatory agencies.
As we see most regulation agencies are underfunded and undermanned on purpose. I’m sure they are the same.
This is also why regulatory agencies have been systematically crippled over the last 40 years or so. Damn near every sector has had their regulatory agencies crippled by some combination of reducing authority, underfunding, and understaffing. When the agencies work, the message is “see, we don’t need those regulations anymore because we’re taking care of things fine on our own,” and when they stop working, the message is “we shouldn’t be spending money on these agencies! They don’t do anything anyway!”
It was working for a while for the guy. He was paralyzed from the neck down and he was able to use it to play some lame game like LoL or something.
Yeah I seen a money kinda play pong on it. It was cool and all but not ripping at your skull cool.
It sucks bc there are real companies developing the tech for an amazing cause. Elon is a dip shit that has no clue on how to run a company and he is actually hurting the research.
You don’t even need to be inserting probes to be able to do that…
OCZ had this ‘toy’ out in 2008.
https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16826100006
one of the reviews…
Ultra-sensitive, excellent response time. Partial hands free gaming. Cool looking blue LED glow from interface box. This is the future of computer user interface. While designed primarily for FPS games, works exceptionally well with MMOs. Makes Crysis WARHEAD and FarCry 2 a joy to play. As a disabled person, this unit has allowed me to game with all the “normal” folks on the same level.
ok but the real interesting stuff like reading hand writing from a paralyzed person imagining writing it and etc are all only for actual electrodes in brains.
I still have this, but suspect it’s bricked after I’ve pressed the “do not press” button on the side. (i’m a filthy button pusher) If anybody has some firmware dumps or at least documentation, I’d appreciate it.
Never managed to use the brainwaves, but it was sensitive to the facial muscle movement. Good enough to play pong.
This was to be expected and they handled it well imo. I’m not gonna get one though.
Agreed. I was flippant after reading the headline, since I don’t like Musk, but once I read the story I was like "oh yeah this tech does have big potential for the differently abled. "
A quadriplegic being able to control a cursor on a screen with the implant for 100 days seems like a legit first attempt.
Could be great for the accessibility movement in the long run. But I could be naive or too optimistic.
There are some politically correct terms that are not well liked by the people they describe:
- Differently abled
- Houseless
- Latinx
A quadriplegic being able to control a cursor on a screen with the implant for 100 days seems like a legit first attempt.
Why, when we already have non-surgical solutions that allow the same thing but don’t come with the risk of killing you?
differently abled
Please dude I promise you this is near universally hated by disabled people 😭
I agree with not liking ‘differently-abled’ as a term. To me it reads along the same lines as “disabled people are built different”. Pretty awkward.
Not that I have a horse in this race. Or a neuralink, as the case may be.
Yeah I feel like it’s an attempt to resolve the Deaf stance that deafness isn’t a disability. The general stance of the Deaf community is closer to that of the queer community than that of say the paraplegic community. It sees deafness as a disability constructed by a society unwilling to communicate visually and to teach signed languages to all people able to use them.
Mind you we’re the contentious portion of the disabled world. The Deaf are as bad as lesbians I tell ya.
But on point, “differently abled” feels like it washes away the struggle. I am disabled. I’m disabled by a society that taught my great grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents not to teach their hard of hearing children sign language because otherwise we won’t use English. I’m disabled by a society that doesn’t include visual signals in emergency sounds even when it’s easy to do. I’m disabled by a society where people, including cops, will speak to the back of my head and not even consider that I didn’t respond because I didn’t hear. And I’m disabled by the assumption my life has to be worse for having less sound as though I’m not extremely literate and completely capable of using a signed language. I’m not “differently abled” I’m completely able in most ways everyone else is.
I know this is a point of some contention among the deaf community, but how do you feel about the development of a “standard” international sign? Personally, and I’m speaking as a fully hearing person, I think a basic international sign should be developed and taught to everyone. Not only to facilitate communication with the hard of hearing, but also in loud environments and with those who don’t share a spoken language.
It’s my understanding that a large portion of the deaf community is hostile to the idea of a universal sign from a cultural perspective, since each regional sign has cultural content. However I think it’s a potential solution for numerous issues, with more pros than cons.
You misunderstand language itself, not just sign language, if you think a universal language is possible or even a good thing
It would certainly be limited and rudimentary; I wouldn’t suggest a solution exists capable of any broad nuance. But gesture is a unique variety of communication, in that it can convey “innate” meaning in ways verbal language simply cannot, except in the case of onomatopoeia. Pointing is nearly universal, smiling is nearly universal, beckoning is nearly universal. Gesture is a spatial form of communication, centered around our primary means of material interaction with the world.
Grammar and syntax aside, I’d argue that it would be possible to assemble a vocabulary of universal concepts (eat, drink, sleep, travel, me, you, communicate, cooperate, come here, go away, etc). Certainly not a language for extended detailed conversation, but a codification and extension of gestures which are already nearly universal by virtue of their innate implications alone. Enough to communicate that you’re hungry, but not enough to send for takeout.
A universal language, at the level of any other sophisticated language, is obviously impossible. A formal codification of simple gestures to communicate at the most basic human concepts is much more doable.
All twenty of us Esperanto speakers just entered the chat! 🤩
That’s like saying blind people are not disabled, it’s just society that insists on visual stimuli
The deaf argument is that there’s no need for assistance of assistive tools. An all deaf town would experience no undue hardships unlike an all blind town.
I’m personally on the fence about it, but trust me when I write that we’ve seen whatever your gut instinct on this is before. Your gut take is just a hearing person speaking against Deaf theory written by Deaf people and the people far more involved in it are probably not going to see it because the Deaf don’t deal with the hearing as much as other disabled groups do, for obvious reasons.
Deaf people and hard of hearing people may be more likely to be involved in car accidents
How do people who have gained hearing feel about it? It seems like hearing would be important for a number of things besides communication, but maybe modern life doesn’t require much?
Why
Why not? Nothing wrong with research and development as long as everyone participating in the test is an informed, consenting adult IMO. The advancements could make current accessibility tech even better. For one reason or another, a quadriplegic person decided they were willing to take the risk, so maybe they consider current accessibility tech for quadriplegics to be insufficient and wanted to try for something better?
Please dude I promise you this is near universally hated by disabled people 😭
Well damn, I didn’t know.
I will never not post this. This is what anyone who gets one of these is destined for :
When a company stops supporting devices like this, the devices and their documentation and code should be required to enter the public domain. It should not be allowed for assistive devices to become e-waste stuck in a patient’s body.
Yep
Neuralink reportedly floated the idea of removing his implant
This immediately sank when someone pointed out that it would be a PR nightmare, which naturally was more important than patient safety.
