A quadriplegic woman has written her name for the first time in two decades by just using her thoughts, all thanks to Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain chip. Audrey Crews, who has been paralysed since the age of 16, is one of the participants of Neuralink’s ongoing brain-computer interface (BCI) trial. She shared the emotional moment on X, posting: “I tried writing my name for the first time in 20 years. I’m working on it. Lol #Neuralink.”
Alongside her post, Audrey also shared a photo of her name, “Audrey”, scribbled in violet on her laptop screen. Her post has since gone viral, with over two million views and a response from Musk himself. “She is controlling her computer just by thinking. Most people don’t realise it is possible,” Musk wrote.
Crews, who is identified as “P9” in Neuralink’s PRIME Study, received the implant just last week. In a follow-up post, she explained how it works. She shared that a hole has been drilled in her skull and 128 threads have been placed into my motor cortex. She further added that the Neuralink chip is about the size of a quarter. Once inserted, the BCI then reads signals from the user’s brain’s movement centre and translates them into cursor movements. Though the brain surgery procedure was hectic, the recovery has gone “amazing,” she wrote.
Notably, the Neuralink chip won’t restore movement, but it will let users communicate and control digital devices. “This is based on telepathy only,” she wrote.
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Founded in 2016 by Elon Musk, Neuralink is said to connect the human brain directly to computers. The technology aims to help people with neurological conditions, such as paralysis, regain digital independence and potentially control prosthetics or communicate without speaking.