Posted by EditorDavid from the interesting-interface dept.
Late Friday Elon Musk appeared on Lex Fridman’s podcast for a special eight-hour episode about Neuralink.
It’s already been viewed 1,702,036 times on YouTube — and resulted in this report from Reuters: Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup’s owner Elon Musk… [Musk] gave few details about the second participant beyond saying the person had a spinal cord injury similar to the first patient, who was paralyzed in a diving accident.
Musk said 400 of the implant’s electrodes on the second patient’s brain are working. Neuralink on its website states that its implant uses 1,024 electrodes… Musk said he expects Neuralink to provide the implants to eight more patients this year as part of its clinical trials.
Neuralink’s device “has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop,” according to the article: The first patient, Noland Arbaugh, was also interviewed on the podcast, along with three Neuralink executives, who gave details about how the implant and the robot-led surgery work. Before Arbaugh received his implant in January, he used a computer by employing a stick in his mouth to tap the screen of a tablet device. Arbaugh said with the implant he now can merely think about what he wants to happen on the computer screen, and the device makes it happen… Arbaugh has improved on his previous world record for the speed at which he can control a cursor with thoughts alone “with only roughly 10, 15% of the electrodes working,” Musk said on the podcast.
Fridman said his interview with Musk was “the longest podcast I’ve ever done,” calling their conversation “fascinating, super technical, and wide-ranging… I loved every minute of it.”
You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.
Working…
