Nolad Arbo, the first person to have a Neuralink brain chip implanted, told Business Insider about the possibilities of technology and changes in his daily life.
"There were many risks, especially for the first [patient]. The only thing I was worried about was brain damage. I asked my parents to send me to boarding school if I became mentally disabled," he recalls.
Arbo's body was paralyzed below the shoulders eight years ago after an unfortunate diving incident. At the end of January, Neuralink performed a successful chip insertion operation, and a month later announced that the patient was undergoing a recovery course.
Arbo uses technology daily to send messages to X, wipe Instagram, reply to emails, engage in "fantasy sports," read comics online and learn Japanese. With the help of the implant, he was also able to book a hotel to visit the Neuralink headquarters.
"One day I fell asleep while using it, and the cursor kept moving and clicking. I slept for about five minutes, and when I woke up, about ten different applications were open on the computer. You can turn off the cursor so that this does not happen, but I forgot that time," Arbo said.
The patient explained that the device connects to a computer via Bluetooth and uses a special Neuralink application.
Arbo conducts training sessions with a team of brain-computer interface specialists for about four to eight hours a day. In addition, he has "personal sessions" where he can use the chip at his discretion.
"It helps us learn things that researchers would not otherwise have learned. For example, there are various situations in which the technology does not work exactly as intended," explained Arbo.
Recalling the technical difficulties, he said that about a month after the operation, some of the neural strands of the device broke away from the brain due to its displacement during pulsation. In a few days, surgeons were able to fix the problem after a small additional operation.
"[The implant] allowed me to reconnect with the world, my friends and family. Thanks to him, I write better text messages and interact with people, for example, on social networks," Arbo said.
The patient admitted that Neuralink technology has significantly improved his quality of life and allowed him to "become more independent."
Recall that in May, the founder of the company, Elon Musk, announced the start of accepting applications for participation as a second subject for implantation of a brain chip.
In March, Neuralink announced a vision-restoring product called Blindsight.