First person with Neuralink implant plans to continue experiment

WASHINGTON, July 26 The first person with a Neuralink chip implanted in his brain, American Nolan Arbaugh, said that he expects to be a participant in the experiment for at least another five and a half years, expects that the «return» to life without it will be difficult for him.
«A year is the initial phase of the study, after which there will be another five years of some kind of observations, so I will be a participant in the experiment for six years, God willing, everything will be fine and I will stay in the project for as long as they (the company — ed.) want,» Arbo said in an interview.

Under the terms of the project, he can leave the trial at any time, choosing whether he wants to keep the chip or, on the contrary, part with it. «I can call them today and say that I'm fed up, and then we have two options — deactivate the chip, they will come, simply turn it off, and I will not be able to use it, and, secondly, they will physically remove it during another operation,» he said.

«I don't know which option I would prefer, but when I complete the experiment…, I would like to continue using this technology, because it will be hard to give it all up and end up with nothing again,» he shared, emphasizing that this would not be a tragedy — «I lived without it for seven years, and I can do it after,» the world's first person with a chip implanted in the brain reassures himself.
In January 2024, entrepreneur and Neuralink founder Elon Musk announced that the world's first person had received a brain implant. It was 29-year-old Noland Arbo, who was completely paralyzed as a result of an accident in which his spinal cord was damaged. Using Neuralink technology, a small device similar to a button battery was implanted in the area of ​​Arbo's brain responsible for processing commands to the motor apparatus, from which microwires with electrodes extend that receive signals from the patient's brain. Brain commands are wirelessly transmitted to an application on a computer, and thus the owner of the implant is able to control it using the «power of thought.» According to the company, the technology is designed to help people who have lost the ability to use their limbs.
In early July, Elon Musk announced that another participant in the experiment would soon receive the implant.