- The Washington Times - Tuesday, February 20, 2024

The first human test subject at Elon Musk’s Neuralink has made a full recovery and is moving a computer cursor just by thinking, the billionaire announced this week.

During a Spaces session on X Monday, Mr. Musk said the first human trial is off to a good start.

“The patient seems to have made a full recovery with no ill effects that we are aware of and is able to control the mouse, move the mouse around the screen just by thinking,” the company’s owner said.

The update comes after the company announced it implanted its first device into a human in January.

Neuralink hopes the human subject will one day operate a computer through the implant. According to Mr. Musk, Neuralink technology will restore previously lost functions like sight, speech and general motor skills.

The company received approval for human testing from the Food and Drug Administration in May after years of preliminary animal testing.

Neuralink’s animal testing practices received increased scrutiny when the company announced it was going ahead with human trials. According to reports, a dozen monkeys died after receiving Neuralink’s implant. Mr. Musk confirmed that fact, but said the company intentionally chose terminally ill animals for the test to minimize risk to healthy ones.

• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.

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