Elon Musk Says First Neuralink Brain Chip Patient ‘Recovering Well’

Elon Musk’s biotechnology company Neuralink has successfully implanted a brain chip into its first human patient on Sunday, according to an announcement by the multibillionaire.

Musk announced the achievement Monday in a series of posts to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter before he acquired the platform in 2022. According to the company’s founder, the patient is “recovering well.”

“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” Musk added in a post. A spike is a signal of neuron activity, occurring when nerve cells carry signals from your brain to the rest of your body.

“The first @Neuralink product is called Telepathy,” Musk said in a separate post, adding that the product is intended to give a person “control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.”

“Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs,” Musk added. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal.”

Newsweek reached out to Neuralink via email for more information late Monday night.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the spring signed off on allowing Neuralink to conduct in-human clinical trials. In September, Musk’s company began recruiting patients with paralysis to participate in its trials.

The biotechnology startup, which Musk founded in 2016, has set out to develop a brain-computer interface (BCI) that connects the human brain to a computer, which would allow an individual to control a computer cursor or keyboard using just their thoughts. According to the company’s website, the threads of the Neuralink implants are so fine that the devices have to be inserted into patients using a surgical robot.

“Brain-computer interfaces have the potential to change lives for the better,” Neuralink said on its website. “We want to bring this technology from the lab into people’s homes.”

The company has faced scrutiny over its safety procedures, according to Reuters, which reported this month that Neuralink was fined by the U.S. Department of Transportation over violation of its rules regarding the movement of hazardous materials.

Musk’s company also faced a federal investigation in 2022 over accusations that it was neglecting animal welfare protocol during its testing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which looked into the allegations, said in July 2023 that it found no “compliance breaches” during its inspection beyond an incident in 2019 that the company had already reported, according to Reuters’ report. Musk also denied the allegations.