I wrote about Neuralink about 6 weeks ago. The device is a set of thin wires attached to a computer about the thickness of a few quarters that sits in his skull and allows patients to use his or her thoughts to move a computer pointer on a screen.
A patient Brad Smith who received the implant posted on X.
“I am the 3rd person in the world to receive the @Neuralink brain implant. 1st with ALS. 1st Nonverbal. I am typing this with my brain. It is my primary communication,” he wrote. “Ask me anything! I will answer at least all verified users!”
Smith’s case is drawing interest because he’s not only communicating via a brain implant but also getting help from Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, which is suggesting how Smith can add to conversations and drafted some of the replies he posted to X.
The generative AI is speeding up the rate at which he can communicate, but it also raises questions about who is really talking—him or Musk’s software.
There is a trade-off between speed and accuracy. The promise of brain-computer interface is that if you can combine it with AI, it can be much faster.
Brad Smith learned he had ALS after a shoulder injury he sustained in a church dodgeball game wouldn’t heal. As the disease progressed, he lost the ability to move anything except his eyes, and he was no longer able to speak. When his lungs stopped pumping, he made the decision to stay alive with a breathing tube.
Starting in 2024, he began trying to get accepted into Neuralink’s implant study via “a campaign of shameless self-promotion,” he told his local paper in Arizona: “I really wanted this.”
The day before his surgery, Musk himself appeared on a mobile phone screen to wish Smith well. “I hope this is a game changer for you and your family,” Musk said, according to a video of the call.
“I am so excited to get this in my head,” Smith replied, typing out an answer using a device that tracks his eye movement. This was the technology he’d previously used to communicate, albeit slowly.
Smith was about to get brain surgery, but Musk’s virtual appearance foretold a greater transformation. Smith’s brain was about to be inducted into a much larger technology and media ecosystem—one of whose goals, the billionaire has said, is to achieve a “symbiosis” of humans and AI.
Comments(0)