Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company Neuralink recently celebrated a historic milestone in the form of completing two successful operations to install a brain chip implant on the same day. The company confirmed the milestone in an X (formerly Twitter) post, saying that both operations—for two patients, P8 and P9—had been performed in a single weekend and that the patients were recovering well. One of the recipients, Audrey Crews, known as P9, was the first woman implanted with a Neuralink BCI. Now her story is catching the tech world's eye.
Audrey, who has been paralyzed for 20 years, said she chose the Neuralink procedure in hopes of regaining a few of her digital faculties. Post operation, she was able to write her name and play computer games—using nothing but her thoughts. I attempted to write my name for the first time in 20 years. I'm on it," she wrote in a post. The operation was carried out at the University of Miami Health Centre—officials placed a coin-sized chip in her skull. Doctors inserted 128 ultra-thin threads into her motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement, using a robot.
The Neuralink chip functions by detecting electrical signals in the brain and then wirelessly transmitting those signals to an external device, such as a computer. Advanced Decoding these signals using AI algorithms, users are able to transmit digital commands—such as typing or moving a cursor on a computer screen—directly to computers. " While the implant won't bring back her ability to walk, it does make it possible to interact with the digital world in ways Crews hasn't been able to do for the past two decades. "It's telepathy only," she clarified.
Elon Musk also retweeted Crews' update, commenting, "She's using her computer with her brain. Many people don't know this is an option." Neuralink, founded in 2016, plans to use its brain interface technology to do things like allowing people with severe neurological conditions to control digital devices with just their thoughts.
Audrey Crews has continued to post her recovery process online as she captures herself playing games and doodling on a screen—using just her mind. A new team for artificial intelligence Enabling technologies often allow new directions in research and applications. The advancement not only indicates technological progress but also indicates the untapped potential for integrating artificial intelligence with human cognition.
