When Noland Arbaugh applied for Neuralink’s first human trial in late 2023, the 30-year-old Texas A&M alum figured he had “nothing to lose.” Paralyzed from the shoulders down since a 2016 diving accident, he became the company’s first implant recipient in January of 2024.

Two years later, Neuralink has implanted chips in at least 12 more people worldwide and is running toward mass production – with results that are both remarkable and complicated.

Real-World Impact: Neuralink Patients Share Their Stories

Arbaugh, known on X as @ModdedQuad, uses his “Telepathy” implant around the clock to surf the web, play Civilization VI, and video-chat with his family.

In a November 2025 post that went viral, he wrote:

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Arbaugh’s surgeon told Dr. Phil in a follow-up interview that he had “never seen a brain less traumatized by a brain surgery.”

And yet, the breakthrough was not without setbacks. Arbaugh’s experience included a major hardware failure.

Within a month of surgery, up to 85% of his electrode threads retracted from brain tissue, dropping his ability to control external devices. Neuralink avoided additional surgery by pushing software updates to partially compensate for the lost threat connections – a fix that worked, but raised durability questions about the implant.

Implant recipient three, Brad Smith – an ALS patient who is completely non-verbal, ventilator-dependent, and can only move his eyes – used the implant to narrate and self-edit a YouTube video – essentially with just his thoughts and eyes alone. The video is narrated by a voice digitally recreated from Smith’s audio recordings before he lost the ability to speak. Smith speaks about how the implant works, the impact it has had on his family, and the impact it has had on his ALS journey.

“I can already communicate faster, and in more ways than I could before, and we are still working on ways to get even faster. Like Noland, the first Neuralink recipient, I believe God has put me in this position to serve others,” Smith says in the video. “Life is good,” he adds at the end.

Patient Five, a paralyzed U.S. military veteran named RJ, received his implant at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine in April 2025 – the very first surgery performed there – and was even discharged the following day. “They’re giving me my spark back…my drive back. They’ve given me my purpose back. Now, I’m able to turn around and build that fire for the next guys that come through,” RJ said.

Mass Production, Safer Implants, and Blindsight Momentum

Neuralink’s N1 chip – roughly coin-sized, flush under the skull – holds more than 1,000 electrodes on 64 ultra-thin threads inserted by a surgical robot the company calls “R1.” The implant can communicate via Bluetooth, translating the user’s intended movement into cursor control and computer keystrokes.

In December of 2025, Musk posted to X saying that Neuralink will begin “high-volume production” of devices and move to a “streamlined, almost entirely automated surgical procedure” in 2026, including threading electrodes through the brain’s dura mater without even removing it – a change that could drastically reduce the amount of risks during surgery, and recovery time as well.

Neuralink’s separate “Blindsight” visual prosthesis program, which targets the visual cortex in an attempt to restore sight, received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in September 2024 and has recently gained buzz as applicants have started pouring in. Human trials of the blindsight program are allegedly expected to begin by the end of 2026.

Controversies and Scrutiny Surrounding Neuralink

The revolutionary implant and its parent company have faced scrutiny over the past few years.

Animal rights groups and federal investigators have examined Neuralink’s research labs and preclinical work, with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) claiming in 2023 that the USDA overlooked multiple Animal Welfare Act violations, a claim Neuralink denies.

“Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink violated the federal Animal Welfare Act and received a free pass from the agency responsible for enforcing the law. That’s what the U.S. Department of Agriculture told members of Congress last week,” The PCRM wrote.

Researchers have also criticized the company’s lack of public disclosure or transparency regarding its clinical trial data, which apparently makes an independent review of the company pretty difficult.

A prior report from The Hastings Center for Bioethics reads, “Opening up the brain of a living human being to insert a device, particularly someone with serious medical problems, deserves more than a two-sentence report on what is, in effect, a proprietary social media platform not distinguished for its reliability where facts are concerned.”

Regardless, Musk and the Neuralink team continue to push forward.