Neuralink's first brain-chip patient plays online chess

STORY: Noland Arbaugh is playing this game of chess with his brain using a chip implanted by Elon Musk’s start-up Neuralink.

"I'd like to introduce you to the first ever user of the Neuralink device."

The company livestreamed the event on Wednesday.

Arbaugh in January became the first patient to receive a Neuralink implant which seeks to enable people to control a computer cursor or keyboard using only their thoughts.

The 29-year-old was in a diving accident eight years ago that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.

"Do you want to explain a little bit of what's going on here?"

"Yeah, so I love playing chess and this is one of the things that you all (Neuralink) have enabled me to do, something that I wasn't able to really do much the last few years, especially not like this. I have used a mouse stick and stuff but now it's all being done with my brain. If you all can see the cursor moving around the screen, that's all me. It's pretty cool, huh?"

"Actually, can you pause the song, just for the audio coming through. And that was also done with your brain?"

"Yup. It's all brain-powered there."

Arbaugh said that while there was room for improvement with the new technology, it had already “changed his life.”

Former program director for neural engineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health Kip Ludwig said what Neuralink showed was a “good starting point” but not a "breakthrough."

Last month, Reuters reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found problems with record keeping and quality controls for animal experiments at the firm.

Those findings came less than a month after Neuralink said it was cleared to test its brain implants in humans.

The company did not respond then to questions about the FDA inspection.