Neuralink’s Second Affected person Is Already Taking part in Counter-Strike 2

Neuralink’s second affected person is doing effectively, based on Neuralink, and is already utilizing the brain-computer interface chip to play Counter-Strike 2.

The Elon Musk-backed startup is implanting computer chips in the brains of people with spinal cord injuries. The pitch is that they’ll have the ability to interface with computer systems instantly and management computer systems with their thoughts. The second affected person, who Neuralink known as Alex, is already looking the net, constructing stuff in CAD software program Fusion 360, and taking part in video video games with the system.

Neuralink introduced Alex’s progress in a blog post on Wednesday that detailed his experiences with the chip. In response to the weblog, Alex was an automotive technician earlier than his spinal twine damage and missed constructing issues. On the second day with Neuralink, he designed a mount for his Neuralink charger in Fusion 360 and had it 3D printed.

“I’m already tremendous impressed with how this works,” Alex mentioned, based on Neuralink.

Neuralink additionally shared a video of Alex taking part in a bot match of Counter-Strike 2 with the system. He’s a fan of first-person shooters and beforehand needed to play them utilizing a Quadstick, a mouth-operated controller.

“Simply operating round is so pleasant as a result of I can look aspect to aspect, and never want to maneuver Quadstick left and proper… I can [think about where to] look and it goes the place I would like it to. It’s insane,” he mentioned.

Alex is the second affected person to obtain a Neuralink this 12 months. Musk and the corporate launched the world to Noland Arbaugh, the primary affected person utilizing the chip, to great fanfare in January. Arbaugh mentioned he was fortunate to have obtained the therapy and celebrated with the ability to management a pc along with his thoughts by pulling an all-nighter taking part in Civilization VI. He performed the sport for eight hours straight, draining the ability on his Neuralink.

There have been problems. A few of the threads from the chip that surgeons implanted into Arbaugh’s mind retracted, leading to an information loss throughout communication between the mind and the system. Neuralink mentioned it was in a position to compensate for this information loss by tweaking this system operating the chip.

Neuralink mentioned it was conscious of this difficulty throughout Alex’s surgical procedure and took steps to protect towards it.

“To cut back the chance of thread retraction in our second participant, we carried out a variety of mitigations, together with lowering mind movement in the course of the surgical procedure and lowering the hole between the implant and the floor of the mind,” it mentioned within the weblog submit on its web site.

To this point, Alex has not skilled thread retraction and its penalties.

Neuralink has proven promise however has additionally been controversial. Its co-founder left the corporate and later informed the Wall Avenue Journal he was worried about safety underneath Musk’s tenure. The corporate additionally confronted a federal probe over allegations of animal abuse however an investigation only turned up one incident.