Second Human To Receive Neuralink Brain Chip Uses It To Play Counter-Strike 2 (pcmag.com) 25
In a blog post on Wednesday, Neuralink said its second human recipient is using the brain chip to play Counter-Strike 2 and develop 3D designs in CAD software. "Alex" was given the brain chip last month to help restore his autonomy after a spinal cord injury. PCMag reports: Like the first Neuralink patient, Noland Arbaugh, Alex has also been using the brain chip to play his favorite computer games, such as Counter-Strike 2. Before, Alex had to use a mouth-operated controller, called a QuadStick, to play the first-person shooter. But even then, the controller limited him to only moving or aiming his weapon at a single time, never simultaneously like a normal Counter-Strike player. In other words, Alex had to essentially switch back and forth between the mouse and keyboard functions while playing the game. But thanks to Neuralink, he can now aim with the implant, and simultaneously move while using the QuadStick. [...]
In the blog post, Neuralink also addressed a problem the company faced when placing the chip in Arbaugh, the first patient. Despite a successful surgery, about 85% of the thread-based electrodes attached to his brain later became displaced, undermining the full potential of the chip to read neural signals. Although Arbaugh can still use his implant effectively, Neuralink wanted to avoid a repeat with Alex. In response, the company developed several "mitigations," which include reducing the chance of an air pocket forming during surgery and placing the implant deeper into the brain tissue. "Promisingly, we have observed no thread retraction in our second participant," the company said of Alex.
Whether Alex's implant outperforms the brain chip in Arbaugh was left unclear. In the meantime, Neuralink says it's working on ways to enhance the controls on the technology "to deliver full mouse and video game controller functionality." "Additionally, we plan to enable the Link [brain chip] to interact with the physical world, allowing users to feed themselves and move more independently by controlling a robotic arm or their wheelchair," the company said. You can watch Alex playing Counter-Strike 2 on YouTube.
In the blog post, Neuralink also addressed a problem the company faced when placing the chip in Arbaugh, the first patient. Despite a successful surgery, about 85% of the thread-based electrodes attached to his brain later became displaced, undermining the full potential of the chip to read neural signals. Although Arbaugh can still use his implant effectively, Neuralink wanted to avoid a repeat with Alex. In response, the company developed several "mitigations," which include reducing the chance of an air pocket forming during surgery and placing the implant deeper into the brain tissue. "Promisingly, we have observed no thread retraction in our second participant," the company said of Alex.
Whether Alex's implant outperforms the brain chip in Arbaugh was left unclear. In the meantime, Neuralink says it's working on ways to enhance the controls on the technology "to deliver full mouse and video game controller functionality." "Additionally, we plan to enable the Link [brain chip] to interact with the physical world, allowing users to feed themselves and move more independently by controlling a robotic arm or their wheelchair," the company said. You can watch Alex playing Counter-Strike 2 on YouTube.
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly!
Performance (Score:4, Interesting)
"Whether Alex's implant outperforms the brain chip in Arbaugh was left unclear.
Surely it's too early to tell? I got the impression with Noland that although the implant was quite impressive from day one, there was quite a long process of him learning to use the implant, and also of Neuralink continuing to improve the software. Of course part of that was due to working around the thread retractions, but if Alex has only had it a couple of weeks, maybe let's give him a little time. Also they may be a bit sensitive about comparing patients to each other, I'm not sure the patients would like that.
Re: (Score:3)
That's probably partly a human brain limitation. It takes it a long time to (re)-learn new skills, be it in children or in adults recovering from a stroke. Moving an object on a screen is probably comparable to moving muscle groups to some extent at least in terms of brain function.
If anything, they seem to have bypassed some of those limitations.
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
On the one hand it's great that they are helping people. On the other, you would have to be desperate or foolish to want a Musk controlled brain implant.
And as ever, Musk's promises fall far short of the reality. At least the scientists and engineers get to do some good work.
Odd that it's CS:GO in the video (Score:2)
I don't think there are simple ways to play CS:GO. You'd have to jump through some hoops probably. Seems a little suspicious.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not very active in the modern gaming scene. Is "CounterStrike: GO": like "Pokemon: GO"?
Re: (Score:1)
similar, yes
Re:Odd that it's CS:GO in the video (Score:4, Funny)
You just show up with your gun at specific places in the real world and just start shooting, I presume.
Re: (Score:2)
Same general idea, but with people calling you a little b!tch and f***t.
I kind of got sick of the tedious trash talk about 20 years ago and dialed the time I spent on it way back. Bought CS:GO and played it for about a month before I uninstalled it and found other things to spend my time time on.
Like most online games, it's the players that make it or break it.
Re: (Score:2)
It's short for "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive", which was the major release for the franchise in 2012, replacing Counter-Strike: Source. It was replaced by Counter-Strike 2 in 2023.
Re: (Score:2)
As others have clarified, it's an older version of the game. Think of it like CS:1 when the article said he was playing CS:2. CS:GO was replaced entirely by CS:2 last year. You can't play it on Steam anymore. Hence why would the blog post say he was playing CS:2 but make a video of CS:GO? It's just weird.
Riiight.. (Score:5, Funny)
We're banned for using a fancy keyboard, but the guy with the brain implant is allowed to play.
Re: (Score:3)
Brain implant allows him to control mouse inputs. It's not very accurate at this, as you can see from his motions with it in the video.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a competitive world wide game hosted in my mother's basement. The only doping your allowed to do is spend thousands on an internet connection, video card and CPUs, BUT NOT CONTROL METHODS! BAN HIM! HAVE THE GOVERNMENT THROW EM IN PRISON!!! SEND A GUY WITH A HAMMER [nypost.com] TO WACK 'EM!
Only a matter of time before someone demands bans on this, and there will be.
Re: (Score:2)
not to worry, zen cronos is working on this
Obligatory Firefly reference... (Score:5, Funny)
...here [i.redd.it]
So you're saying we actually ... (Score:3)
... have Cyberware. (!?)
Like, right now, here in the real world. (??)
I'm getting this right, yes?
Holy cow. With AI arriving and Unitree Robots now going into mass production we're going to surpass the tech-level of Bladerunner within my lifetime. That's my strong suspicion anyway.
He'll be banned from regular playing though. LOL!
Next up: Hooking up a visual cortex into a videogame world. :-)
South Park V-chip for children and adults anyone? (Score:2)
Do they have v-chip version like in South Park?
Interesting Experiment... (Score:2)
The description is weak (Score:2)
I infer from the article that via the implant he has two variable inputs (currently assigned left-right and up-down) and at least one binary input (mouse click). And that they're accurate enough to play a video game that requires decent coordination and reaction times.
That's actually pretty impressive.
Full control in the real world requires three variables for linear movement plus three variables for rotation on the axes those movement dimensions define. Per object manipulated, so if you're controlling se