Brad Smith, an Arizona husband and father with ALS, has become the third person to receive Neuralink, the brain implant made by Elon Musk’s company.
He is also the first ALS patient and the first non-verbal person to receive the implant, he shared in a post on X on Sunday.
“I am typing this with my brain. It is my primary communication,” Smith, who was diagnosed in 2020, wrote in the post, which was also shared by Musk. He went on to thank Musk.
Smith is completely paralyzed and relies on a ventilator to breathe. He created a video using the brain-computer interface (BCI) to control the mouse on his MacBook Pro, he stated.
“This is the first video edited with [Neuralink], and maybe the first edited with a BCI,” he said.
The video was narrated by Smith’s “old voice,” he said, which was cloned by artificial intelligence from recordings before he lost the use of his voice.
“I want to explain how Neuralink has impacted my life and give you an overview of how it works,” he said.
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, according to The ALS Association.
Over time, the disease impairs muscle control until the patient becomes paralyzed. ALS is ultimately fatal, with an average life expectancy of three years, although 10% of patients can survive for 10 years and 5% live 20 years or longer.
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It does not impact cognitive function.
Neuralink, which is about 1.75 inches thick, was implanted in Smith’s motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls body movement.
The implanted device captures neuron firings in the brain and sends a raw signal to the computer.
“AI processes this data on a connected MacBook Pro to decode my intended movements in real time to move the cursor on my screen,” Smith said.
“Neuralink has given me freedom, hope and faster communication,” he added. “It has improved my life so much. I am so happy to be involved in something big that will help many people.”
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Smith is also a man of faith, saying that he believes God has put him in this position to serve others.
“I have not always understood why God afflicted me with ALS, but with time, I am learning to trust His plan for me,” he said.
“God loves me and my family. He has answered our prayers in unexpected ways. He has blessed my kids and our family. So I’m learning to trust that God knows what he is doing.”
Smith also said he is grateful that he gets to work with the “brilliant people” at Neuralink and do “really interesting work.”
“Don’t get me wrong, ALS still really sucks, but I am talking about the big picture,” he said. “The big picture is, I am happy.”
Dr. Mary Ann Picone, medical director of the MS Center at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, applauded Neuralink’s capabilities.
“This is an amazing development that now the third person to use Neuralink has gained the ability with the use of AI to type with neural thoughts,” Picone, who was not involved in Smith’s care, told Fox News Digital.
“The now-realized potential of Neuralink is to allow patients with quadriplegia to control computers and mobile devices with their thoughts.”
There are some risks involved with the implant, Picone noted. These include surgical infection, bleeding and damage to the underlying brain tissue.
“But the benefits are that patients who are paralyzed would have the potential to restore personal control over the limbs by using their thoughts,” she said.
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Dr. Peter Konrad, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the department of neurosurgery at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, called Neuralink a “remarkable demonstration of the power of AI-driven technology.”
“Mr. Smith is an incredible hero for those who are severely disabled from diseases such as ALS,” Konrad, who also was not involved in Smith’s care, told Fox News Digital.
Konrad also spoke of the advancements that have occurred since the past generations of BCI technology.
“It is encouraging to see faster progress being made with neural devices reaching clinical trials in the past five to 10 years,” he said. “However, we are still awaiting development of a BCI device that does not require a team of engineers and experts to customize each and every severely disabled patient with this technology.”
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“For every Brad Smith out there, there are hundreds of thousands of other disabled patients awaiting access to this technology,” he said.
“This video demonstrates the safety of these types of devices — now it’s time to provide larger access to these devices through a new generation of educated physicians, engineers and manufacturers able to deploy this technology.”