As we reported in late January, the first human patient has finally been implanted with a brain chip from Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink.

Now, just over 100 days after the surgery, the company has shared Progress update about how things are going Noland ambushedNeuralink’s first patient with quadriplegia.

Quadriplegia is defined as dysfunction or loss of motor and sensory function in the cervical region of the spinal cord, usually resulting in impairment of all four limbs.

Noland received his brain chip called Link as part of Neuralink’s PRIME study — a medical device trial of its fully implantable wireless brain-computer interface (BCI). The purpose of the study is to evaluate the safety of the Link implant and Neuralink’s R1 surgical robot and to evaluate the initial functionality of a BCI to allow people with quadriplegia to control external devices with their thoughts.

In the weeks following the surgery, Noland was not only able to move a computer cursor, but also play games such as chess, Mario Kartor Civilization VI.

On weekdays, Noland attends research sessions for up to eight hours each day. During the remaining time and on weekends he uses the implant for personal use. Overall, he divides his time equally between exercise and recreation.

In the update, Neuralink explains that the standard measure of cursor control speed and accuracy is bits per second (BPS), calculated using a grid task shown in the X post below. The higher the score, the better.

During the first study session Noland reached the level of 8 BPS. However, some of the thin wires connected to his brain receded in the following weeks. As a result, Neuralink had to make some adjustments:

“In response to this change, we modified the recording algorithm to be more sensitive to neural population signals, improved the techniques for translating these signals into cursor movements, and improved the user interface. These refinements produced a rapid and sustained improvement in BPS, which has now superseded Noland’s initial performance.” .

In any case, more important than the score are the benefits to Noland’s daily life, and as he puts it, Link has helped him reconnect with the world, friends and family, as well as giving him the ability to do things on his own again without the constant need for assistance:

“You all give me too much, it’s like luxury overload, I haven’t been able to do these things for 8 years and now I don’t know where to even begin to allocate my attention.”

Noland is now even beating his friends in games that as a four-man he shouldn’t be beating, adding that what Link can do should give a lot of people a lot of hope.