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Elon Musk’s medical implant firm Neuralink recently announced that there are now 12 people worldwide using its products. These individuals have collectively used their devices for 2,000 days and 15,000 hours, marking a significant milestone for one of the few brain implant companies in the world, which aims to treat conditions such as blindness and mental illness.
Neuralink Shares Landmark: 12 Patients Worldwide Using Its Products
Neuralink’s products are officially called Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs), and the firm implants tiny chips into human brains. Following its first patient, Noland Arbaugh, giving an interview to Fortune Magazine, Neuralink has now revealed that 12 people worldwide are using their brain implants.
In his interview, Arbaugh explained that he was “playing catch-up for eight years of not doing anything” before receiving the implant. He suffered a swimming accident in 2016 and became paralyzed from the waist down. After getting the Neuralink implant in 2014, he began playing video games and learning languages.
Now, it appears that Arbaugh is one of a dozen patients who have received Neuralink implants worldwide. In a social media post earlier today, Neuralink shared that 12 people globally are using its brain implants. The firm added that these patients have collectively used their devices for 2,000 days and 15,335 hours.
Neuralink’s update comes after the firm performed its first surgery outside of the US earlier this month and in late August. On August 27th and September 8th, Neuralink conducted surgeries as part of a four-year clinical trial at the University Health Network (UHN), a Canadian hospital.
This clinical trial aims to investigate whether Neuralink’s implants can be used by quadriplegics to control devices through their thoughts. The firm is also conducting trials in other countries, having received approvals from British regulators for its GB-PRIME study, which evaluates how paralyzed individuals can interact with the digital world using their thoughts.
Elon Musk has set ambitious goals for Neuralink, hoping eventually to bring the cost of the brain chip and associated surgery down to a few thousand dollars. Since receiving FDA approval in 2023 to start human trials, Neuralink has made significant progress.
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