Elon Musk guarantees that the first patient with a Neuralink chip will be able to mentally use a computer mouse

Elon Musk, founder of Neuralink, assured this Wednesday that the first patient implanted with a brain “chip” from the technology company is now able to control a computer mouse with his thoughts.

“He appears to have made a full recovery, no side effects have been reported, and he is able to control the mouse and move it around the screen with just a thought,” the tech mogul assured during a Spaces session on social network X.

Before this first implant, which was installed last month, these types of brain applications had only progressed in one direction: from the brain outward, usually to a computer that processes the signals.

But the Neuralink project aims to be able to transmit information in the other direction, to the brain.

The startup Neuralink is focused on developing implants for people that can interpret brain signals to control various technologies so that people who have lost senses such as vision, touch or speech can regain them.

The company recently clarified that it is working in parallel with two types of implants: one to restore vision “even to those who have never had it,” and another to restore basic body functions in people with paralysis due to spinal cord damage.

Neuralink began recruiting patients for its first human clinical trial in the fall, after receiving U.S. Food Safety Administration (FDA) approval in May.

Other companies have also installed a brain implant, also called a brain-machine interface (BMI), in humans.

In September, Dutch company Onward announced it was testing connecting one brain implant to another that stimulates the spinal cord, with the goal of helping a paralyzed patient regain mobility.

In 2019, researchers from the Grenoble institute Clinatec presented an implant that, once installed, allows a paralyzed person to move an exoskeleton.