THE first human to receive a Neuralink brain chip has revealed his identity and now people are wondering if they're next.
The patient was in keeping with Elon Musk's plans for his company to give the AI chips to people with brain and spinal injuries first, leaving people wondering where they sit on the brain chip timeline.
The U.S. Sun spoke with James McQuiggan, a security expert at KnowBe4 about who could be next to receive a chip and the security risks they may face.
Noland Arbaugh was announced on March 20 as the first person to be implanted with an AI Neuralink brain chip.
A posted on Nerualink's X account demonstrated how the 29-year-old quadriplegic man was able to use the chip to move a mouse cursor with his brain.
Arbaugh became quadriplegic after a car accident and decided to sign up for the life-changing brain chip trial that saw him implanted with the gadget earlier this year.
He fits the profile of the patient Musk had previously said he was looking for.
A few years ago at the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit, he said his plans for Neuralink are to first implant the chips in humans that have severe spinal cord injuries.
"I think we have a chance with Neuralink to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a spinal cord injury," the tech CEO said at the Summit.
The billionaire thinks it could be possible for the chip to "make up for whatever lost capacity somebody has."
Cyber expert McQuiggan told us he suspects that people with similar conditions to Arbaugh will be next to receive the brain chips.
"Considering that the first Neuralink has already been implanted into a real-life patient, where the targeted patients are those with Lou Gehrig's disease or a person with quadriplegia and approval given by the FDA, they are over a significant hurdle with the implant and have received approval.
"This procedure could be available for those who meet their criteria in the next three to five years.
"For those outside the scope, I could see it being considered similar to cosmetic surgery, where it is elective, the patient wants it voluntarily, and they would need to accept a lot of risks if anything were to fail or go awry," McQuiggan told us.
One of McQuiggan's colleagues previously told us how he suspects we'll reach a point when parents will beg for brain chips in their children.
"One day, the healthcare industry or government will offer some fantastic new capabilities that consumers will beg for and we'll all beg for them to be implanted into our babies and children," computer security authority expert Roger Grimes told The U.S. Sun.
"Maybe they will say it will allow easier tracking if your kid is kidnapped. Or closer monitoring of your child's health.
"Whatever the killer service is, one day, most of us will probably beg to have one," he added.
Neuarlink is notoriously private and secretive when it comes to patient plans so it is hard to pinpoint exact dates for when they'll be available to everyone.
Experts do seem to agree that it will be several years before they're widely used to treat medical conditions and even longer before healthy people can opt to have one.
Arizona State University’s Bradley Greger, an expert in neural engineering, also supported this idea on the university's .
"The technology may be generally available with a physician’s or surgeon’s prescription in several years.
"Therefore, most initial users will be patients with neurological disorders.
"I am somewhat skeptical that healthy people will undergo neurosurgery to get the device or that the surgery would be allowed without some medical condition to be treated by the device," he said.
ELON MUSK is the CEO of Tesla Motors, Space x, founder of The Boring Company, and co-founder of Neuralink and open AI
Fun Facts
Space x
Space x was founded by Elon Musk in 2002.
