The first human patient has received a brain implant from the neurotechnology startup Neuralink, according to Elon Musk.
The company’s founder and owner, Musk tweeted on Monday that the patient is recovering well.
“Initial results show promising neuron spike detection,” he added.
The announcement comes a little less than six months after plans for the first human clinical trial were announced, following the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s rubber-stamping of the project.
Last November, Musk held a much-hyped demonstration alongside the company’s engineers and researchers to promise that the implants, which carry many risks, would begin human trials soon. During the presentation, a simulated robotic surgery on a dummy mimicked what a human patient would soon undergo.
“I could have a Neuralink device implanted right now and you wouldn’t even know,” Musk joked while on stage, claiming that the devices would be capable of wireless charging.
“In one of these demos I will,” he added.
The company, which was reportedly valued as high as $5 billion last summer, announced in September that the current study would be used to assess the safety of its wireless implant and the surgical robot used to place it.
A company blog post noted that volunteers who had quadriplegia caused by a spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) could potentially qualify for the study.
