Neuralink’s First Patient Shares Life After Brain Chip Implant

Noland Arbo, the first individual to receive a Neuralink brain chip implant, shared with Business Insider insights into the technology’s capabilities and its impact on his daily life. 

“There were many risks, especially for the first [patient]. The only thing I worried about was brain damage. I asked my parents to put me in a home if I became mentally impaired,” he recalls.

Arbo was paralyzed below the shoulders eight years ago following a diving accident. In late January, Neuralink successfully conducted the chip implantation, and a month later announced the patient had completed a rehabilitation course.

Arbo uses the technology daily to send messages on X, browse Instagram, respond to emails, engage in “fantasy sports,” read comics online, and learn Japanese. With the implant, he was also able to book a hotel for a visit to Neuralink’s headquarters.

“Once I fell asleep while using it, and the cursor kept moving and clicking. I slept for about five minutes, and when I woke up, around ten different applications were open on the computer. You can disable the cursor to prevent this, but I forgot that time,” Arbo recounted. 

The patient explained that the device connects to a computer via Bluetooth and uses a special Neuralink application. 

Arbo spends about four to eight hours a day in training sessions with a team of brain-computer interface specialists. Additionally, he has “personal sessions” where he can use the chip at his discretion.

“It helps us learn things that researchers otherwise wouldn’t know. For instance, various situations where the technology doesn’t work quite as expected,” Arbo explained. 

Recalling technical difficulties, he mentioned that about a month after the surgery, some of the device’s neural threads detached from the brain due to its movement during pulsation. Surgeons were able to fix the issue after a minor additional operation within a few days. 

“[The implant] allowed me to reconnect with the world, my friends, and family. Thanks to it, I write text messages better and interact with people, for example, on social media,” Arbo noted. 

The patient acknowledged that Neuralink’s technology has significantly improved his quality of life and allowed him to “become more independent.” 

In May, the company’s founder, Elon Musk, announced the start of applications for a second participant in the brain chip implantation trial.

In March, Neuralink announced a vision-restoring product called Blindsight.