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431

First human brain implant malfunctioned, Neuralink says (thehill.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

142 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The first Neuralink implant in a human malfunctioned after several threads recording neural activity retracted from the brain, the Elon Musk-owned startup revealed Wednesday.

The threads retracted in the weeks following the surgery in late January that placed the Neuralink hardware in 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh’s brain, the company said in a blog post.

This reduced the number of effective electrodes and the ability of Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, to control a computer cursor with his brain.

“In response to this change, we modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques to translate these signals into cursor movements, and enhanced the user interface,” Neuralink said in the blog post.

The company said the adjustments resulted in a “rapid and sustained improvement” in bits-per-second, a measure of speed and accuracy of cursor control, surpassing Arbaugh’s initial performance.

While the problem doesn’t appear to pose a risk to Arbaugh’s safety, Neuralink reportedly floated the idea of removing his implant, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company has also told the Food and Drug Administration that it believes it has a solution for the issue that occurred with Arbaugh’s implant, the Journal reported.

The implant was placed just more than 100 days ago. In the blog post, the company touted Arbaugh’s ability to play online computer games, browse the internet, livestream and use other applications “all by controlling a cursor with his mind.”

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[–] [email protected] 162 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

When did they work? Prior to getting approved in humans they were killing animals at a high rate. To the point where animals were smashing their heads against shit to get the chip out.

Additional veterinary reports show the condition of a female monkey called “Animal 15” during the months leading up to her death in March 2019. Days after her implant surgery, she began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason; a symptom of pain or infection, the records say. Staff observed that though she was uncomfortable, picking and pulling at her implant until it bled, she would often lie at the foot of her cage and spend time holding hands with her roommate.

I understand testing on animals is tough but this was straight cruelty.

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It was working for a while for the guy. He was paralyzed from the neck down and he was able to use it to play some lame game like LoL or something.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I seen a money kinda play pong on it. It was cool and all but not ripping at your skull cool.

It sucks bc there are real companies developing the tech for an amazing cause. Elon is a dip shit that has no clue on how to run a company and he is actually hurting the research.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You don't even need to be inserting probes to be able to do that...

OCZ had this 'toy' out in 2008.

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16826100006

one of the reviews...

Ultra-sensitive, excellent response time. Partial hands free gaming. Cool looking blue LED glow from interface box. This is the future of computer user interface. While designed primarily for FPS games, works exceptionally well with MMOs. Makes Crysis WARHEAD and FarCry 2 a joy to play. As a disabled person, this unit has allowed me to game with all the "normal" folks on the same level.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

IIRC dude went home and played Civ all night

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When I was in college working in a lab, we were worried about accidentally killing frogs with our equipment because we didn’t have anything filed with the IRB about frogs.

Everything with Elon bewilders me. I thought this is why we had regulatory agencies.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

This is also why regulatory agencies have been systematically crippled over the last 40 years or so. Damn near every sector has had their regulatory agencies crippled by some combination of reducing authority, underfunding, and understaffing. When the agencies work, the message is "see, we don't need those regulations anymore because we're taking care of things fine on our own," and when they stop working, the message is "we shouldn't be spending money on these agencies! They don't do anything anyway!"

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

As we see most regulation agencies are underfunded and undermanned on purpose. I'm sure they are the same.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not defending this, but at least a human electively chooses this procedure and understands why they have a device attached to their head. The monkeys must have had no idea what was going on and just wanted to remove the foreign object.

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[–] [email protected] 149 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This was to be expected and they handled it well imo. I'm not gonna get one though.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Agreed. I was flippant after reading the headline, since I don't like Musk, but once I read the story I was like "oh yeah this tech does have big potential for the differently abled. "

A quadriplegic being able to control a cursor on a screen with the implant for 100 days seems like a legit first attempt.

Could be great for the accessibility movement in the long run. But I could be naive or too optimistic.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (13 children)

A quadriplegic being able to control a cursor on a screen with the implant for 100 days seems like a legit first attempt.

Why, when we already have non-surgical solutions that allow the same thing but don’t come with the risk of killing you?

differently abled

Please dude I promise you this is near universally hated by disabled people 😭

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I agree with not liking 'differently-abled' as a term. To me it reads along the same lines as 'disabled people are built different'. Pretty awkward.

Not that I have a horse in this race. Or a neuralink, as the case may be.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (23 children)

Yeah I feel like it’s an attempt to resolve the Deaf stance that deafness isn’t a disability. The general stance of the Deaf community is closer to that of the queer community than that of say the paraplegic community. It sees deafness as a disability constructed by a society unwilling to communicate visually and to teach signed languages to all people able to use them.

Mind you we’re the contentious portion of the disabled world. The Deaf are as bad as lesbians I tell ya.

But on point, “differently abled” feels like it washes away the struggle. I am disabled. I’m disabled by a society that taught my great grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents not to teach their hard of hearing children sign language because otherwise we won’t use English. I’m disabled by a society that doesn’t include visual signals in emergency sounds even when it’s easy to do. I’m disabled by a society where people, including cops, will speak to the back of my head and not even consider that I didn’t respond because I didn’t hear. And I’m disabled by the assumption my life has to be worse for having less sound as though I’m not extremely literate and completely capable of using a signed language. I’m not “differently abled” I’m completely able in most ways everyone else is, and people who can’t learn to communicate visually are just as disabled as people who can’t learn to communicate audibly.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (6 children)

That's like saying blind people are not disabled, it's just society that insists on visual stimuli

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are some politically correct terms that are not well liked by the people they describe:

Differently abled
Houseless
Latinx

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I cannot speak to any of these, however, I learned that that you should just ask. If you can’t ask, put the “human” first such as people with disabilities or people who are deaf, blind, etc. Latine is another term I’ve heard, but in the community, there are those that like it and those that don’t.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I will never not post this. This is what anyone who gets one of these is destined for :

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

When a company stops supporting devices like this, the devices and their documentation and code should be required to enter the public domain. It should not be allowed for assistive devices to become e-waste stuck in a patient's body.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago

That's weird. Did he try subscribing to Twitter Blue?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago

The implant failing when the subject's connected tissue died has always been the best possible outcome from this, tbh.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

It’s the first attempt. Failure is gonna happen. This isn’t big news. If they were rolling it out to market that would be different.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sure failure is gonna happen but neuralink hasn't been particularly successful with all the primates that have been tested with for previous version either.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is more than enough to turn me off from the idea of neural anything in the brains of humans. Especially if it's all being ran by a fledgling sycophant like Musk.

Even if it's not drastic, I don't want to know what the worst case scenario would've been.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Idk... I don't like Elon, but this is actually incredibly huge overall. he controlled a computer with his mind. That's amazing for people who could benefit from it. I think it's worth continuing down this path, just to see how it evolves. I'm sure the man knew the risks and still chose to do it, meaning it was worth it to him.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (17 children)

This isn't something new to nueralink. Brain-machine interfaces have existed for quite some time. Neuralink is one of a number of companies that are exploring directly implanting these devices rather than using an externally attached (hence, easily removable) interface, but the core thesis of "Brain control computer" isn't any kind of grand leap forward. That's just Musk's marketing.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope Noland has unlimited use because he might risk having to pay a sub to use the implant that they put in his brain

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I would never put something in my brain that doesn't at least have a public API documentation. If the company discontinued the product I want to be able to keep using it. Open Source software would be best.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

Open source is the only way for anything that should enter our brains.

Really hope regulations will come to this.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not the first, first they told people about.

Definitely a closet full of dead bodies over there.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

Dead monkeys and apes, yes. The bodycount in primates for the development of Neuralink isn't... Fun.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

shocked Pikachu face

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Was The Lawnmower Man a documentary?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (7 children)

That movie was so awful, even then. That and Battlefield Earth are guilty pleasures but they're truly terrible.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

"Humanity can not progress without heaps" - Hubert Farnsworth

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