Arabella Asis Tech 03.27.2024 03:Mar AM EDT

First Neuralink Brain Patient Plays Civilization 6 All Night

The first human patient with the Neuralink brain implant revealed that he was able to pull an all-nighter to play Civilization 6.

Previously, Neuralink's CEO Elon Musk claimed that the patient gained the ability to play Chess and move a computer mouse using his thoughts.

Neuralink Shares Improvement With First Brain Implant Patient

Earlier this month, Neuralink shared a nine-minute livestream featuring the 29-year-old implant patient Noland Arbaugh sharing his experiences after receiving the company's care. Arbaugh suffers from a complete quadriplegic and had paralysis from below the shoulders after a diving accident.

During the livestream, Arbaugh demonstrated how he uses the Neuralink brain-computer interface (BCI) to control an on-screen cursor to move the pieces while playing digital chess.

He also shared that the implant allowed him to even pull an all-nighter to play Sid Meier's Civilization 6 - an activity that he could not previously do before the surgery. Arbaugh explained that he gave up playing the game before surgery since he required complete help from a friend to play.

"Now I can literally just lie in bed and play to my heart's content. Honestly, the biggest restriction at this point was having to wait for the implant to charge once I had used all of it," he added.

Neuralink Allows Patient to Experience Gaming

The patient also revealed that the implant helped him enjoy other games such as Nintendo's Mario Kart 8: Deluxe. Arbaugh can play the game with the help of neural signals that are decoded by the BCI tech.

"Playing Mario Kart and coming in second repeatedly blew my mind, I didn't think that would be possible like [...] a week into using it, that was freaking wild. Even though my dad and my buddy wouldn't let me win," said Arbaugh.

Musk previously stated that his long-term goal for the technology is to "shunt the signals from the brain motor cortex past the damaged part of the spine to enable people to walk again and use their arms normally."