Neuralink has published an update on the second patient in its early human trials, and it said that "promisingly," it has "observed no thread retraction" in the participant. The Elon Musk-led startup implants a chip into the human brain, allowing paralyzed patients to control devices, browse the internet and play video games with their thoughts. It implanted a chip into its first patient back in January, and while the procedure went well, some of the implants' connective threads retracted from the brain weeks later. That reduced the brain signals the device could receive. For its second patient called Alex, the company employed mitigation measures to prevent the same thing from happening, or at least lower its probability.

Neuralink's brain chip has been implanted into a second patient as part of early human trials, Elon Musk told podcast host Lex Fridman on Saturday. The company hasn't disclosed when the surgery took place or the name of the recipient, according to Reuters. Musk said 400 of the electrodes on the second patient's brain are working out of 1,024 implanted. "I don't want to jinx it but it seems to have gone extremely well," he said. The device allows patients with spinal cord injuries to play video games, use the internet and control electronic devices using their thoughts alone.

Neuralink has successfully implanted in a second patient its device designed to give paralyzed patients the ability to use digital devices by thinking alone, according to the startup's owner Elon Musk. Neuralink is in the process of testing its device, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop. Musk, in comments made during a podcast released late on Friday that ran more than eight hours, gave few details about the second participant beyond saying the person had a spinal cord injury similar to the first patient, who was paralyzed in a diving accident. Musk said 400 of the implant's electrodes on the second patient's brain are working.

The Neuralink CEO, Elon Musk, said on Wednesday that the company would soon test its pound-coin-sized implant and brain-computer interface on a second patient. The unnamed patient's surgery is slated for "the next week or so", Musk said. Surgery on a different patient intended to be the second participant in Neuralink's human trial had been scheduled for late June but was delayed when they experienced unspecified health issues contraindicating the procedure. The same day, the company announced that the wires attaching the first Neuralink patient's brain to the implant in his skull had become "more or less very stable" after detaching months ago. "Once you do the brain surgery it takes some time for the tissues to come in and anchor the threads in place, and once that happens, everything has been stable," said the Neuralink executive Dongjin "DJ" Seo during a live stream late on Wednesday on Twitter/X.

Elon Musk's Neuralink has been given a green light to implant its brain chip in a second patient after fixing issues that struck during the first human trial. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the next person on Monday, signing off on the company's planned updates that included embedding some of the device's ultrathin wires deeper into the brain. Neuralink revealed this month that some of 64 threads detached from the first patient's brain, causing the chip to malfunction - nearly ending the trial that began in January. A report by Reuters cited'five people familiar with the matter' had claimed that this issue had been'known about for years' from animal testing. This is a developing story... more updates to come.