⁠First patient of Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip is filmed playing online chess using telepathy to move the cursor

Elon Musk’s Neuralink live-streamed the first patient playing online chess. The short video shows Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old paralysis patient playing chess on his laptop and moving the cursor only by using the Neuralink device and telepathy. As per Neuralink, he received an implant from the company in January, and he can now control the cursor and many features of the computer only by his thoughts.

In a video posted on X on March 20, Noland Arbaugh talks about his experience with Neuralink, and his surgery. He said:

“The surgery was super easy. I literally was released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairments. I had basically given up playing that game. You all gave me the ability to do that again and played for eight hours straight."

He also stated that he felt “very lucky” to be a part of the program, as he had lost the ability to move his hands and legs after a horrific driving accident that happened 8 years back. Hence, he is now able to use the computer after a long wait of many years, and hence, he explained:

“I’m paralyzed from below the shoulders. I have no sensation or movement below my injury."

---

“It just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving”: More details about Neuralink explored

Since Noland could not move most of his parts of the body, he has not been able to use the computers since his accident. However, he now uses Elon Musk’s brain chip company to play games such as chess on his laptop.

In the video streamed live on X through the company’s account, he explained how the signals from his brain reached the laptop, which was then translated into the programming language, and controlled the device only by his thoughts.

He explained:

“From there, it just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving. Basically, it was like using the Force on a cursor and I could get it to move wherever I wanted.”

Noland also shared how he now plays many games apart from chess, like Civilization 6. He stated that he constantly played the game until 6 AM, something that he had only hoped to do for so many years. However, he also talked about the limitation of the device, as it needs to be charged every 8 hours.

The quest to test Neuralink began more than 2 years back when the company released a video of a monkey playing ping pong only by using his thoughts. Elon Musk earlier stated that the device uses “telepathy” to control the computers, as it taps into the brain and uses the thoughts as commands.

As per the company, the chip is being developed for people struggling with disabilities such as paralysis. The device can be easily connected to an iPhone, or MacBook, and connects easily through Bluetooth.

As the video of the first Neuralink patient went viral, social media users were left excited as well as shocked to see Noland moving the cursor through telepathy.