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Elon Musk\u2019s brain-computer interface company has released a video<\/a> purporting to show the first human patient using Neuralink\u2019s brain implant to control a mouse cursor and play a game of chess. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The patient, identified as 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, said he was injured in a diving accident eight years ago that paralyzed him below the shoulders. Arbaugh describes using the Neuralink implant as like using the Force from the Star Wars <\/em>franchise, allowing him to \u201cjust stare somewhere on the screen\u201d and move the cursor where he wants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The video marks the first time Neuralink has shared footage of a human using its brain implant, after Musk announced in January that the first trial participant was \u201crecovering well<\/a>\u201d after having the technology implanted. It comes a little under three years after the company released a video that showed a monkey controlling an on-screen cursor<\/a> to play Pong using the technology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This kind of control via a brain-computer interface isn\u2019t entirely new; The Wall Street Journal<\/em> notes<\/a> that in 2004 a paralyzed person was also able to move a cursor thanks to help from a brain-computer interface. But this earlier iteration of the technology wasn\u2019t able to transmit data wirelessly like Neuralink, and relied on wires protruding through the skin. The fact that Arbaugh was able to hold a conversation while moving the cursor is also notable, according to the WSJ<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s certainly a good starting point,\u201d Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering co-director Kip Ludwig tells Reuters<\/em><\/a>. However, he denied that the demo represents a \u201cbreakthrough.\u201d Other companies like BlackRock and Synchron have also demonstrated how paralyzed patients can use brain-computer interfaces to control electronic devices, though Synchron\u2019s less-invasive approach may not be able to gather as much neural data, according to the WSJ<\/em>. Paradromics and Precision Neuroscience are also working on brain implants to compete with Neuralink.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Neuralink has been criticized for the way it\u2019s conducted its trials, with critics pointing towards a lack of transparency around elements like the number of subjects or what outcomes it\u2019s assessing, Wired<\/em> notes<\/a>. The company\u2019s previous experiments on monkeys have also been the subject of controversy<\/a>, including reports that animals involved in the trials had to be euthanized after suffering complications including brain bleeds, \u201cbloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Although Neuralink is initially being pitched as an assistive technology, Musk has said he eventually wants it to be implanted into perfectly healthy people to enhance their capabilities. But that\u2019s still a long ways off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Arbaugh admitted that \u201cthere\u2019s still a lot of work to be done\u201d and that the team \u201chave run into some issues.\u201d But he also says that the implant \u201chas already changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n