Noland Arbaugh

He has said he was injured in a swimming accident in 2016 and has since been paralyzed below the shoulders.⁠[1]

In January 2024 he volunteered for surgery at the Barrow Neurological Institute and became the first person to receive Neuralink’s brain–computer interface chip.⁠[2]

In a livestream posted on X on March 20, 2024, he—then 29—played online chess by moving the cursor with his thoughts, saying it felt “like using The Force”; he said the surgery was “super easy”, that he had previously relied on a mouth stick or family members pressing buttons, and that he now also played Civilization VI and studied Japanese and French.⁠[3]

In May 2024 he said device performance dropped after some threads came loose from his brain, nearly leading to the device’s removal; he said giving up what it let him do was very hard and that he cried afterward.⁠[4]

He estimated that about 85% of the threads were completely detached and that his brain had shifted up to three times what the company expected; after an over-the-air software update the device performed better than before. He said that when he asked whether the implant could be removed, fixed or replaced, Neuralink’s medical team said it would prefer to avoid another brain surgery.⁠[5]

He appeared on episode 438, whose page calls him the first human implanted with a Neuralink device.⁠[6]

In December 2024 he said he would have felt terrible and never forgiven himself had he passed up the trial; he noted that his brain moved far more than Neuralink anticipated and said the device had given him hope and purpose, so that he might be able to get a job or go to school.⁠[7]

In January 2025 Neuralink marked the first anniversary of his implant on X; he was relearning math, studying at Peterson Academy, reading widely and returning to creative writing, said he hoped to return to school, possibly for neuroscience, and wrote on X that he was waiting for FDA approval to control other machines such as a car or a drone.⁠[2]

As of August 2025 he used the device about 10 hours a day, was taking prerequisites for a neuroscience degree at a community college in Arizona, and was starting a paid speaking business; he said, “I feel like I have potential again.”⁠[1]

In May 2026 he said he could play fantasy sports proficiently with friends for the first time in years; he recalled that after the team refined its algorithms he reached new highs in cursor speed and accuracy, measured in bits per second on WebGrid, and said no participant after him had had the same thread issue.⁠[8]

X: Public account: https://x.com/ModdedQuad (opens in a new window)⁠[9]