“I am typing this with my brain. It is my primary communication.”
Brad Smith, an Arizona husband and father, posted that line on X on Sunday. He has ALS, was diagnosed in 2020, and is the third person to receive a Neuralink brain implant, the device made by Elon Musk’s company. He says he is also the first ALS patient and the first non-verbal person to get one. Musk shared the post.
Smith is completely paralyzed and relies on a ventilator to breathe. He used the brain-computer interface to control the mouse on his MacBook Pro and edited a video with it. “This is the first video edited with [Neuralink], and maybe the first edited with a BCI,” he said. The narration is his “old voice,” cloned by artificial intelligence from recordings made before he lost the use of it.
What the implant does
The device is about 1.75 inches thick and sits in Smith’s motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement. It picks up neuron firings 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.
ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive disease of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, according to The ALS Association. It gradually takes away muscle control until the patient is paralyzed. Average life expectancy is three years, though 10% of patients live 10 years and 5% live 20 years or longer.
“Neuralink has given me freedom, hope and faster communication,” Smith said. He described himself as a man of faith and said he is grateful to work with the “brilliant people” at Neuralink. “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.”
What doctors say
Dr. Mary Ann Picone, medical director of the MS Center at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, New Jersey, was not involved in Smith’s care. She called it an amazing development and told Fox News Digital the potential is to let patients with quadriplegia control computers and mobile devices with their thoughts. She also listed risks of the implant: surgical infection, bleeding and damage to the underlying brain tissue.
Dr. Peter Konrad, chairman of neurosurgery at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, also not involved, called it a “remarkable demonstration of the power of AI-driven technology.” He added a caution. “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,” he said. “For every Brad Smith out there, there are hundreds of thousands of other disabled patients awaiting access to this technology.”
People with paralysis who are curious about brain implants should talk to their own doctor about the risks and the trials available.
