Elon Musk reveals third person received Neuralink brain chip implant as rival companies challenge

Elon Musk said a third person has received an implant from his brain-computer interface company Neuralink, one of many groups working to connect the nervous system to machines.

“We have … three people with Neuralinks and they’re all working well,” he said during a wide-ranging interview at an event in Las Vegas streamed on his X social media platform.

Since the first brain implant about a year ago, Musk said the company has improved the devices with more electrodes, higher bandwidth and longer battery life. Musk also said Neuralink hopes to implant the experimental devices in 20 to 30 more people this year.

Musk did not provide any details about the latest patient, but there are updates on previous ones.

The second recipient — who has a spinal cord injury and received the implant last summer — was playing video games with the help of the device and learning how to use computer-aided design software to create 3-D objects. The first patient, also paralyzed after a spinal injury, described how it helped him play video games and chess.

But while such developments at Neuralink often attract attention, many other companies and research groups are working on similar projects. Two studies last year in the New England Journal of Medicine described how brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, helped people with ALS communicate better.

Who is working on brain-computer interface technology?

More than 45 trials involving brain-computer interfaces are underway, according to a database of US studies. The efforts aim to help treat brain disorders, overcome brain injuries and other uses.

Many research labs have already shown that people can accurately control computer cursors using BCI, said Rajesh Rao, co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology at the University of Washington.

Rao said Neuralink may be unique in two ways: The surgery to implant the device is the first time a robot has been used to implant flexible electrode threads into the human brain to record neural activity and control devices. And those threads can record from more neurons than other interfaces.

However, he said, the advantages of Neuralink’s approach have yet to be shown, and some competitors have eclipsed the company in other ways. For example, Rao said companies such as Synchron, Blackrock Neurotech and Onward Medical are already conducting BCI trials in humans “using either less invasive methods or more versatile approaches” that combine neural recording with stimulation.

What are the benefits of BCIs?

Marco Baptista, chief scientific officer of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, called BCI technology “very exciting” with potential benefits for people with paralysis.

Through clinical trials, “we will be able to see what the winning approach will be,” he said. “It’s a little early to tell.”

Baptista said his foundation generally tries to support research teams financially and with expert help — though it hasn’t given any money to Neuralink.

“We should really support high-risk, high-reward endeavors. This is clearly high risk, high reward. We don’t know how safe it will be. We don’t know how feasible it will be,” he said.

How are BCIs tested and adjusted?

Neuralink announced in 2023 that it had received permission from US regulators to begin testing its device on humans.

While most medical devices come to market without clinical studies, high-risk ones undergoing premarket approval need what’s called an “investigational device exemption” from the Food and Drug Administration, said Dr. Rita Redberg, a cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies high-risk devices.

Neuralink says it has this exemption, but the FDA said it cannot confirm or disclose information about a particular study.

Redberg said the FDA tends to be involved in all steps from patient recruitment to device testing to data analysis. She said that this regulatory process prioritizes safety.

She also noted another layer of protection: All research involving humans needs an institutional review board, or IRB. It may also be known as an ethical review board or an independent ethics committee. Members should include at least one non-scientist, as well as someone not affiliated with the institution or organization that forms the board.

The role of such boards “is to assume that there is reasonable risk and reasonable opportunity for benefit and that patients are informed of those before they enroll,” Redberg said.