Elon Musk's Brain Chip Returns Total Paralyzed Man's Voice

JAKARTA - A man from Arizona became the third person in the world to receive brain implants from Neuralink and now he can "talk" again in his original voice.

Brad Smith suffers from ALS (Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis), a progressive disease that makes him unable to move any part of the body, except for the eyes and corners of his mouth. This disease robs him of his ability to speak, but Elon Musk's implant, Neuralink, manages to connect his brain to a computer.

About the size of five stacked US Quarter coins, this small chip allows Smith to control the cursor on the MacBook Pro laptop with only his mind. After that, Musk's AI Grok made an accurate sound cloning, trained from Smith's voice recording before he lost his speaking ability.

In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), Smith said: "I can control the computer with my heart life is beautiful." He added, "Neuralink doesn't read the deepest thoughts or words I think."

How Neuralink Works

This Neuralink chip captures neuron activity in the brain, allowing a person to operate a smartphone or computer just by thinking. This implant is designed to help people with spinal cord injuries and has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, and post on social media using only their minds.

ALS itself is a progressive disease that damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As Smith explains in his video:

"I can't move anything except my eyes and fully rely on ventilators to live and breathe."

Implant Installation Procedures

Neuralink uses a sewing machine-like robot to install this implant. The robot makes a small hole in the skull, places the electrode as smooth as the thread into certain areas of the brain, then closes it again by leaving only a small scar.

"These animals were placed by robots just a few millimeters into my brain, avoiding blood vessels so there was almost no bleeding," added Smith.

Neuralink's implant connects to the computer via Bluetooth and processes neuron signals every 15 milliseconds, generating large amounts of data. The AI in MacBook Pro Smith is tasked with real-time processing this data to drive the cursor on the screen.

Before using Neuralink, Smith relied on an eye-control-based computer, which is only effective in dark rooms and limits his mobility outdoors. Now, with Neuralink, he can move outside without being disturbed by lighting changes.

Going forward, Neuralink plans to implant deeper electrode thread into the brain with higher precision to increase effectiveness.

Elon Musk, who founded Neuralink in 2016 with a team of scientists and engineers, said he was optimistic: "This is just the start of going better in the future."