Neuralink shows a monkey playing Pong with its mind
A video showed a macaque named Pager controlling a game cursor using its implant alone.
Archive entry. This article looks back at an event from April 8, 2021. It was drafted with AI assistance from public records and is being fact-checked. See our About page.
In April 2021, Neuralink published a video of a macaque monkey named Pager playing the video game Pong without a joystick.
The monkey had first learned to play with a joystick while Neuralink's implants recorded activity from its brain. The company then used those recordings to predict the movements the monkey intended, so it could control the game by thought alone.
The demonstration was meant to show how a brain-computer interface could one day let people with paralysis use a computer. Neuralink's animal research also drew scrutiny and complaints from animal-welfare groups.
