Elon Musk’s Neuralink shows first brain-chip patient playing chess
The first patient to receive a brain chip from Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has appeared to play online chess.
Neuralink released a nine-minute video in which the patient, who is paralysed below his shoulders, appears to move a cursor across a laptop screen with nothing but his thoughts. The video shows him playing chess and turning off the laptop’s music.
The patient, who had not been previously identified, said in the live stream video that his name is Noland Arbaugh, 29, who was paralysed below the shoulder after a diving accident.
Mr Arbaugh received an implant from the company in January and could control a computer mouse using his thoughts, Musk said last month.
Musk previously said the aim of the brain chip is to eventually allow users with disabilities, like the late Stephen Hawking, to “communicate faster than an auctioneer”.
He has also claimed it would be able to potentially treat obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia.
“The surgery was super easy,” Mr Arbaugh said in the video streamed on Musk’s social media platform X, referring to the implant procedure.
“I literally was released from the hospital a day later. I have no cognitive impairments.”
He said he had “basically given up playing” the game Civilization VI, but “you all [Neuralink] gave me the ability to do that again and I played for eight hours that day.”
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Pic: Neuralink
‘It has already changed my life’
But Mr Arbaugh said the new technology is “not perfect” and they “have run into some issues”.
“I don’t want people to think that this is the end of the journey, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but it has already changed my life,” he added.
In the Neuralink video, Mr Arbaugh talks about the process he underwent to train on the device after doctors implanted it in January. He said that he would think about moving his hand and that, eventually, moving the computer cursor became second nature.
“It just became intuitive to me to start imagining the cursor moving. It was like using The Force on the cursor, and I could get it to move wherever I wanted,” he said, using a Star Wars reference.
“Every day it seems like we’re learning new stuff,” he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s ready to meet with Vladimir Putin after Donald Trump said the Russian president had agreed to let Ukraine have security guarantees from its allies.
A meeting between the two men could happen before the end of the month, followed by a trilateral summit which includes their US counterpart.
Follow the latest: Trump vows to stop war
It comes after Mr Trump hosted the Ukrainian president and a host of other European leaders at the White House on Monday, just days after he met Mr Putin in Alaska last week.
Among those in attendance were Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
Mr Trump said Mr Putin “agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine”.
He added: “I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We’re going to help them, and we’re going to make it very secure.”
Donald Trump speaks to Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in the White House. Pic: Reuters/Alexander Drago
‘Article-Five-like’
The mention of US involvement in security guarantees was welcomed by the European leaders.
Ms Von der Leyen said it was “good to hear” the nations were working on “Article Five-like security guarantees”.
NATO’s Article Five is the principle that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all of them.
Sir Keir said the guarantees would help ensure a “lasting deal”, and one for which there would be consequences if Russia breached it.
Mr Macron said it was not just about Ukraine, but “the whole security of the European continent”.
He added that one guarantee he would want to come out of any deals is that Ukraine should be able to have a “credible” army for “the years and decades to come”.
But there remained signs of some strain between Mr Trump and Europe. His belief that a ceasefire isn’t required to strike a peace deal was challenged Mr Merz, who said he “can’t imagine” a Zelenskyy-Putin meeting taking place without one.
Sky News understands that European leaders and Mr Zelenskyy will stay in Washington for now to continue talks.
The European leaders stand for a photo with US President Donald Trump. Pic: Reuters/Alexander Drago
The talks including the European leaders came after a Trump-Zelenskyy summit in the Oval Office. It was their first since their infamous sparring match back in February, but this time was far more cordial.
Mr Zelenskyy was complimented on his suit and evoked a few hearty laughs from Mr Trump, who said the US would provide “very good protection” for Ukraine.
Read more: Zelenskyy learned his lesson from last time
Mr Trump revealed during the Oval Office talks that he would have a call with Mr Putin later in the day. He broke up his talks with the Europeans to do so, before returning to update them on what they had discussed.
A Kremlin official, Kirill Dmitriev, later hailed the talks as an “important day for democracy”, but didn’t comment on the issue of security guarantees or possible changes of territory.
Mr Zelenskyy gestures during a meeting with Mr Trump at the Oval Office
At the Alaska summit last Friday, Mr Putin has reportedly made demands to take control of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine as a condition for ending the war.
In exchange, Russia would give up other Ukrainian territories held by its troops, according to several news reports citing sources close to the matter.
Russian troops currently occupy large parts of the two regions and, in September 2022, Moscow announced it was officially annexing them, alongside the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, in a move rejected and condemned as illegal by the West.
Read more: Putin’s demands would be bitter blow to Ukraine
Donald Trump warmly greeted Vladimir Putin at the Alaska summit. Pic: AP
Trump talks up possible land swaps
Mr Trump is said to be planning to urge Mr Zelenskyy to agree to the conditions as part of a peace deal to end the war – despite the Ukrainian president previously ruling out handing any territory to Moscow.
“We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory,” the US president said ahead of the multilateral talks with Mr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
He said such exchanges would need to take “into consideration the current line of contact”.
He added: “That means the war zone, the war lines that are now, pretty obvious, very sad, actually, to look at them and negotiating positions.”
Donald Trump put an arm around Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s shoulder during their greeting. Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Both were seen flashing a smile. Pic: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
What happens next?
Mr Zelenskyy and Germany’s Mr Merz both suggested a Zelenskyy-Putin summit could take place within two weeks.
A location has not yet been determined.
A meeting that includes Mr Trump would likely follow in the weeks after.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has learned his lesson from the last time he was in the Oval Office.
When the Ukrainian leader was at the White House in February, he didn’t wear a suit and was berated by Donald Trump and JD Vance over alleged disrespect.
Trump-Zelenskyy latest: NATO-style security guarantees
Zelenskyy’s learned from that moment six months ago and he’s taken on board what other European and world leaders have done with these Oval Office moments – that the best policy is to say as little as possible.
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When Zelenskyy last went to White House
Such was the contrast that the right-wing reporter Brian Glenn, who questioned Zelenskyy over not wearing a suit in February, told the Ukrainian leader: “You look fabulous in that suit.”
The best tactic for dealing with Trump in front of reporters is to not answer the question, don’t rise to the bait.
Get in there and out as soon and as quickly as you can. And this time, that is precisely what Zelenskyy did.
Did Vance learn his lesson too?
The vice president berated Zelenskyy last time but this time, while the US president’s key advisers were there, JD Vance sat quietly to Trump’s side, saying nothing altogether.
It was a marked contrast from six months ago, but some sort of “gulf between the two sides in terms of any peace deal” continues.
Read more from Sky News:
‘Ketamine Queen’ admits drug charge
Putin ‘demands key regions of Ukraine’
Melania’s influence
The influence of Melania Trump seems apparent again.
The US first lady sent a letter to Vladimir Putin via Trump at the Alaska summit on Friday, calling for the war to end.
And on Monday, Zelenskyy gave Trump a letter from his own wife for Melania.
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