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Science

Neuralink's First Human Patient Able To Control Mouse Through Thinking, Musk Says (reuters.com) 73

Posted by msmash from the major-breakthroughs dept.
The first human patient implanted with a brain-chip from Neuralink appears to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using their thoughts, the startup's founder Elon Musk said late on Monday. From a report: "Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of. Patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking," Musk said in a Spaces event on social media platform X. Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient. The firm successfully implanted a chip on its first human patient last month, after receiving approval for human trial recruitment in September.
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Neuralink's First Human Patient Able To Control Mouse Through Thinking, Musk Says More

Neuralink's First Human Patient Able To Control Mouse Through Thinking, Musk Says

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  • "Musk says" (Score:1, Insightful)

    by dfghjk ( 711126 )

    That settles it then. Whatever Musk say is the gospel truth, right?

    • The killed all the primates... so are they going to release his name so we have a chance to keep track of his demise?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        Who is "The" and why did he/she/it kill all the primates?

        Is "The" another name for the propofol administered at the end of terminal procedures, where a specimen which had been preselected to be killed at the end of a procedure to study their brain is terminated?

    • Re:"Musk says" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @12:51PM (#64254824) Journal
      That settles it then. Whatever Musk say is the gospel truth, right?

      Yes, just like his "robot" which can fold clothes [forbes.com] or when he said the car was driving itself [arstechnica.com].

      It's all true because he said it's true. Just like Twitter is a "free speech" zone yet the thin-skinned carp keeps suspending accounts exercising that "free speech", such as the one which figured out he had a bot account praising his own tweets [dailydot.com]. That account was suspended on Sunday and the owner has since deleted his entire account not only because of this incident, but all the other incidents the account was suspended for exercising "free speech" which generally involved making fun of Musk.
      • You can say what you want, but even people at Boston Dynamics are at awe how fast the Tesla bot is improving in the time it was first shown.

        • That really doesn't mean what you think it means

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          That seems unlikely.

          The original Optimus robot was early 2000s tech. It had to keep balanced on at least one leg at all times, so had that squat, constipated walking style that robots from that era exhibited.

          Boston Dynamics robots don't need to be balanced at all times, just like humans aren't. Walking and running are essentially falling forwards and catching yourself with an outstretched leg. Optimus hasn't caught up to that level yet, and Musk hasn't even shown off any rigged demos of it walking that way.

  • Funding source (Score:5, Funny)

    by burtosis ( 1124179 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @12:00PM (#64254684)

    Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.

    I understand X is doing badly and needs ad revenue, but this crosses a line.

  • What interests me is the details, here.
    When he says "control mouse through thinking", does this mean that he thinks "Mouse go left" and it goes left? Or is it just hijacking a different function, as in "wiggle your left toe to move the mouse left".

    The whole thing is of course a massive achievement, but one option is far more glamorous than the other.

    • Re:What kind of thoughts? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @12:57PM (#64254854) Homepage

      These sorts of things - and I say that because this isn't unique work - generally involve the patient trying to visualize the goal, while a neural network that reads the signals from the brain learns to distinguish that signal from unrelated signals. In time, the wetware neural network (the brain) and the artificial neural network both home in on a more innate interaction.

      (The brain is extremely good at adopting new senses, prostheses, etc... it's not fundamentally limited to just those that humans are born with)

      How smooth, fast and natural the interaction can get depends on the communication bandwidth and the ability to distinguish specific activations from others. This implant has 1024 sensors, which puts it at the higher end of Utah Array implants in terms of theoretical capabilities (though that's only 1/3rd of what they'd been doing even in early animal experiments). The goal is to get many orders of magnitude higher than that, however.

      While this sort of research is not new, the design is much more advanced than Utah arrays, and designed to be much more practical.

      * Many sensors per thread instead of 1 per pin, providing another axis for scaling (growing numbers of sensors per thread in addition to numbers of threads)
      * Threads far finer and individually placed to avoid blood vessels, instead of plowing through (doing damage and triggering an immune reaction, and eventually encapsulation)
      * Wireless transmission through the skull instead of a hole that poses a risk of infection ... etc. Utah arrays are kind of like a meat cleaver just stabbed into the brain.

      But in terms of what's being done with the data... it's the same sort of thing, and at this point, there's no ground being broken there.

    • What interests me is the details, here.
      When he says "control mouse through thinking", does this mean that he thinks "Mouse go left" and it goes left? Or is it just hijacking a different function, as in "wiggle your left toe to move the mouse left".

      The whole thing is of course a massive achievement, but one option is far more glamorous than the other.

      The implant isn't reading the person's internal monologue, it's trying to interpret the "intention" of the person.

      The implant measures the firings of various nerves in the brain. The researchers tell the patient "imagine moving the mouse to the left", the person then visualizes doing that in whatever way they like, and the computer copies down the impulses that are measured.

      All the impulses for when the researcher is *not* imagining moving the mouse left are also copied down, and a big neural net tries to f

    • now you mention it I like your idea of toe mouse. And it doesn't involve making any new holes in the head

    • I just want to be able to still play Dark Souls when I'm in a vegetative state!

      Doctor: I think we should pull the plug...
      Nurse: Wait, he just acquired the Lord Vessel in NG+3!
      Doctor: But nobody wants to see him go hollow.

  • Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.

    And when that rate becomes high enough and the MPOG blocks their account for running performance enhancing mods, they can just come back with an ADA lawsuit.

  • yeah... I mean... (Score:3)

    by goranb ( 209371 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @12:45PM (#64254800)

    he didn't control the mouse, though, did he?

    he might have moved a cursor on the screen... still impressive, don't get me wrong, but it's not the same thing as controlling a computer mouse
    words, why do we even have them...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      No, they didn't telepathically cause the physical mouse to move. Is that what you were expecting, based on the summary? I mean, I'm generally on your side with this sort of stuff, words matter. But calling out this one seems to be leaning towards the pedantic side.

      FTA: "...adding that the initial goal is to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts."

      • Granted, TFA said "mouse cursor and keyboard" but that still had me thinking "a hardware button on a hardware keyboard will be depressed and un-depressed."

        Why would I think this?
        * With all the talk about brain-computer or brain-spine interfaces being used to control hand and other muscles, that seems like an obvious conclusion.
        * Even if it's not a "computer bridge" from brain-to-body, it would be very useful to have the computer-brain interface control a robotic hand that moved a mouse or typed. Not just f

      • I read it as a human controlling a cute little furry mammal. I was envisioning a chip in the mouse's brain too, overriding its free will and turning it into a puppet of its superior-minded overlord. With a few more tech advances, this could be incredibly useful in espionage, search-and-rescue, and (of course) subduing the masses.

        But, alas, the article was about controlling ordinary computers with thoughts. Well, controlling organic brains is simply the next logical step. It will come with time.

        It is our

      • Wouldn't it be telekinetically instead of telepathically?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Yeah, I thought of that after I hit "post". If only Slashdot gave us a 30 second window to edit a post. I assume we'll get that after they finish implementing unicode support.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      If they had rigged it to a robot moving a mouse, would have been equally as effective, but pointless, as it could have been as equally limiting and still described the same way.

      Were you perhaps looking for a demonstration that it is ready for controlling prostetic limbs in a more arbitrary capacity? I'm working to find your point here..

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It's not just words. Whatever Musk claims, you would be lucky if the real thing did 10% of that.

      A lot of what he says is just off the cuff made up BS because someone challenged him.

  • Neural implants controlling a computer in 1998. http://www.whsc.emory.edu/_rel... [emory.edu]

    • Yeah but back then they didn’t use a massive sewing machine that went BBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRBBBBBPPPPPPPPP as it staples the implant into your jello.

      Progress!

    • Yes, and even more recently. For example: https://www.medtechdive.com/ne... [medtechdive.com]

      In fact there are people with spinal cord injuries walking by using neural implants to control their limb: https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]

      They don't have the Elon Musk hype field though.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Yep. Old tech. But the sensors need to be removed again after a short while if implanted and they suck if not. The physical interface problem is unsolved for long-term interfacing.

  • Synchron is way ahead! (Score:3)

    by BishopBerkeley ( 734647 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @01:36PM (#64254970) Journal
    They have been doing this for much longer than Neuralink. https://synchron.com/ [synchron.com] and https://spectrum.ieee.org/brai... [ieee.org]

    I'll be buying synchron stock as soon as they are public because, unlike neuralink, Synchron is a company headed by MDs and engineers who understand medicine and tech. It sucks when Musk's shitty ideas drown out good ones just because he has equipped himself with the media megaphone.

  • > Musk said Neuralink was now trying to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient.

    Just give the patient reinforcement for clicks. Wait that's already our lives. We're in a dysopia aren't we.

  • not into mice (Score:3)

    by cstacy ( 534252 ) on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @02:09PM (#64255078)

    Let me know when I can remote control a beaver with my brain.

  • ... I would take any risk to regain some control. Say what you want but this is a good thing.

    Although I'm certainly not saying it has nothing but nice implications. Still, better sort this out later than to not even do R&D. I really can't stand how so many aging geeks now are going full backwards and seem to think that progress always has to be perfect and with not dangers at all. Nothing you do is just nice and great and perfect, everything has its risks and dangers.

  • ⦠drink your Ovaltine.
  • A hypermodern new input tied to an obsoleted user interface device.. Clicks? Canâ(TM)t think of anything more imaginative? I understand some common ground (familiar territory?) is needed but I could imagine way more interesting combinations than pointing device. .. industrial robot arm perhaps? Or if it needed to be a pointing device, something pressure sensitive like a pen? (drawing tablet?)

    • I think you and the other armchair neurologists should absolutely get together, develop this tech, and then publish so you can get rich!! With all this intelligence being displayed there might be no end of things you could accomplish. Please do so soon, the world needs you!

  • The problem is not the interfacing. The problem is that these sensors need to be removed again after a short time. Unless and until that very old and known problem is solved, this is a meaningless stunt.

    • Agreed, we've already been able to have a paralyzed person move his own hand, let alone a cursor. Like you say, its needing to get past the 'wires in the brain' part that is hard.
  • why doesn't it just jump off and does it also need to have brain implants? Pretty impressive in any case, more so if the mouse is controlled without having any implants, but I for one would find it much more useful to be able to move a pointer on a computer screen...

  • Elon will get back to us

  • Can it drive from one side of the country to another ? Are you confident you can do it now ?

  • Jake Steadson, Neuralink's first patient, was beaming with pride at the assembled press for his first post-op news conference. Though the surgical procedure left Jake non-vocal, slack-mouthed, and drooling, at hand was a large screen and keyboard for Jake to respond to questions.

    "Are you happy with the results?" asked one Reuters correspondent.

    Jake immediately took to the keyboard. After typing for several moments Jake looked up and furrowed his brow at the absence of text on the screen. Slowly, the mouse p

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