Elon Musk's neurotechnology startup Neuralink said it has successfully implanted the company's brain device in a second patient and that the surgery "went well."
Neuralink announced Wednesday that a patient by the name of Alex received the brain implant last month and "his recovery has been smooth." The company added that Alex has been using the device to play video games and learning to design 3D objects, among other things.
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"Similar to Noland, our first participant, Alex broke the previous world record for brain-computer interface (BCI) cursor control with a non-Neuralink device on day one of using the Link," Neuralink said in a blog post. "After the first research session concluded, Alex continued testing the capabilities of the Link independently, using it to play the first-person shooter game Counter-Strike."
The company said Alex, like Noland, suffered from a spinal cord injury. According to Musk, the company's implanted brain–computer interface is designed to help people who are paralyzed use digital devices simply by thinking.
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“The Link is a big step on the path of regaining freedom and independence for myself," Alex said in a statement.
Neuralink was founded by billionaire Musk in 2016 and was granted FDA approval for a human study on brain implants in May 2023. The company then began recruiting subjects with "quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)."
