Second patient receives the Neuralink implant
(2024/08/05)
- Reference: 1722859389
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/08/05/second_patient_receives_the_neuralink/
- Source link:
According to company boss Elon Musk, its Neuralink implant is now at work in a second patient, and this time, almost half of the device's electrodes are working.
During a [1]podcast discussion , which also featured Neuralink's first human subject, Noland Arbaugh, Musk said, "We've got, I think, on the order of 400 electrodes that are providing signals."
Neuralink keeps losing the thread on brain implant wiring [2]READ MORE
The current version of Neuralink's N1 implant has 1024 electrodes over 64 threads designed to measure brain activity. After some promising initial results, approximately [3]85 percent of the threads connecting the device to Arbaugh's brain came loose, significantly reducing the system's capabilities.
Arbaugh told the podcast host, Lex Fridman, his experience of the threads retracting: "It sucked. It was really, really hard."
"I thought it would've been a cruel twist of fate if I had gotten to see the view from the top of this mountain and then have it all come crashing down after a month."
[4]
The Neuralink team made some changes to how the behavior of individual neurons was measured, and while Arbaugh is not back to where he was in the early days of his implant, he described the update as a "light bulb moment."
[5]
[6]
As for the update itself, Neuralink's Brain Interface Software Lead, Bliss Chapman, described it as "an over-the-air software update to his implants, same way you'd update your Tesla or your iPhone."
Musk said of the latest person to receive the implant: "I don't want to jinx it, but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant. So, there's a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It's working very well."
[7]China working on standard for brain-computer interfaces
[8]Wrongful termination lawsuit accuses Neuralink of Herpes B-infected monkey business
[9]Neuralink wants 3 more quadriplegic patients for its brain control interface trial
[10]Brain-sensing threads slip from gray matter in first human Neuralink trial
Unsurprisingly, Musk then let loose with hyperbole in describing his hopes for the future of the technology, getting to 100 bits per second in the coming years. "Maybe in five years from now, we might be at a megabit, faster than any human could possibly communicate by typing or speaking."
According to Musk, the technology could vastly increase the bandwidth of human-to-human communication—assuming, of course, the humans in question had received the Neuralink implant.
[11]
Musk said, "The long term aspiration of Neuralink is to improve the AI human symbiosis by increasing the bandwidth of the communication. Because, even in the most benign scenario of AI, you have to consider that the AI is simply going to get bored waiting for you to spit out a few words.
"If the AI can communicate at terabits per second, and you're communicating at bits per second, it's like talking to a tree." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://youtu.be/Kbk9BiPhm7o?si=EMKnf59w6WcaBbAC
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/15/neuralink_loose_wires/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/neuralink_brain_fda/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZrD3Ire24v-rEphUv--npgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/02/china_brain_computer_interface_standard/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/neuralink_monkey_attack_lawsuit/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/neuralink_to_add_more_subjects_to_trial/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/09/neuralink_trial_update/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZrD3Ire24v-rEphUv--npgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
During a [1]podcast discussion , which also featured Neuralink's first human subject, Noland Arbaugh, Musk said, "We've got, I think, on the order of 400 electrodes that are providing signals."
Neuralink keeps losing the thread on brain implant wiring [2]READ MORE
The current version of Neuralink's N1 implant has 1024 electrodes over 64 threads designed to measure brain activity. After some promising initial results, approximately [3]85 percent of the threads connecting the device to Arbaugh's brain came loose, significantly reducing the system's capabilities.
Arbaugh told the podcast host, Lex Fridman, his experience of the threads retracting: "It sucked. It was really, really hard."
"I thought it would've been a cruel twist of fate if I had gotten to see the view from the top of this mountain and then have it all come crashing down after a month."
[4]
The Neuralink team made some changes to how the behavior of individual neurons was measured, and while Arbaugh is not back to where he was in the early days of his implant, he described the update as a "light bulb moment."
[5]
[6]
As for the update itself, Neuralink's Brain Interface Software Lead, Bliss Chapman, described it as "an over-the-air software update to his implants, same way you'd update your Tesla or your iPhone."
Musk said of the latest person to receive the implant: "I don't want to jinx it, but it seems to have gone extremely well with the second implant. So, there's a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes. It's working very well."
[7]China working on standard for brain-computer interfaces
[8]Wrongful termination lawsuit accuses Neuralink of Herpes B-infected monkey business
[9]Neuralink wants 3 more quadriplegic patients for its brain control interface trial
[10]Brain-sensing threads slip from gray matter in first human Neuralink trial
Unsurprisingly, Musk then let loose with hyperbole in describing his hopes for the future of the technology, getting to 100 bits per second in the coming years. "Maybe in five years from now, we might be at a megabit, faster than any human could possibly communicate by typing or speaking."
According to Musk, the technology could vastly increase the bandwidth of human-to-human communication—assuming, of course, the humans in question had received the Neuralink implant.
[11]
Musk said, "The long term aspiration of Neuralink is to improve the AI human symbiosis by increasing the bandwidth of the communication. Because, even in the most benign scenario of AI, you have to consider that the AI is simply going to get bored waiting for you to spit out a few words.
"If the AI can communicate at terabits per second, and you're communicating at bits per second, it's like talking to a tree." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://youtu.be/Kbk9BiPhm7o?si=EMKnf59w6WcaBbAC
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/15/neuralink_loose_wires/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/neuralink_brain_fda/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZrD3Ire24v-rEphUv--npgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZrD3Ire24v-rEphUv--npgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/02/china_brain_computer_interface_standard/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/17/neuralink_monkey_attack_lawsuit/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/neuralink_to_add_more_subjects_to_trial/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/09/neuralink_trial_update/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZrD3Ire24v-rEphUv--npgAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Upgrades
tony72
The main fixes for the thread retraction issue that the first patient experienced were going to be inserting the threads deeper (I think it was going to be 8mm instead of 2mm), and not altering the CO2 levels in the brain during the surgery, as that caused shrinking/expansion that contributed to the retraction issues. I can't find confirmation, but I assume they'll have done both those things with the second patient. It's going to be really interesting to see if the retraction problem is 100% solved, and assuming it is, what the second patient can do with a full complement of electrodes. Noland lost most of his threads, he was down to 15% after a few months, so although he managed to recover the initial performance with just the remaining threads, I'm not sure he ever got to maximise the full set of electrodes. So fingers crossed for the second patient that the threads stay put, and we'll see what the interface can really do.
On the social upside....
spold
he can now do the Mash.
[ Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, not the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, of course]
OTA to a brain interface?
Anonymous Coward
I'd be careful if that software is made by the same people that made FSD..
Re: OTA to a brain interface?
captain_ken
You bought the FSD package? In the UK?
Tesla Telepathy
The first bloke that had it must've been like the first person who bought a phone. Now he's got someone to call and swap recipes with or something.