Audrey Crews, a Louisiana woman who was paralyzed in a 2005 car accident, has regained the ability to control a computer using only her thoughts.
Thanks to Neuralink's brain-computer interface (BCI), Crews can now move a cursor and even write her name for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Crews is one of nine participants testing the company’s Telepathy implant, which aims to help people with paralysis operate devices like computers and smartphones through mental commands.
Highlights
- Audrey Crews, paralyzed for two decades, now uses a computer through her thoughts alone.
- Neuralink’s brain implant allowed her to write her name and draw using only her mind.
- Elon Musk calls the achievement a glimpse of a future where the brain and tech are one.
Audrey Crews is the ninth human and the first woman to receive Neuralink’s Telepathy implant
Image credits: X/Audrey Crews
Crews is part of Neuralink’s PRIME study, a pilot program designed to demonstrate that the company’s brain implants are useful in the daily lives of people living with paralysis.
Crews was a perfect match for Neuralink’s BCI. According to the Daily Mail, she was severely injured in a car accident in 2005, when she was just 16 years old. The accident damaged her C4 and C5 vertebrae in her neck, leaving her quadriplegic.
During surgery at the University of Miami Health Center, doctors drilled a small opening into her skull and inserted 128 ultra-thin threads. Those threads contain over 1,000 electrodes that pick up the electrical signals created when she thinks.
Image credits: Neuralink
Those thoughts are wirelessly sent to a computer using Neuralink’s custom software, which translates the signals into digital commands.
The Telepathy device was implanted into Crews’ motor cortex, the part of the brain responsible for movement.
Based on videos that Crews has shared so far, she can now use a virtual mouse, draw shapes, type on a keyboard, and scroll through pages just by thinking. She even posted a photo on X showing her attempt at a cursive signature.
Image credits: X/Audrey Crews
“I tried writing my name for the first time in 20 years. I’m working on it. Lol,” she wrote in her post.
While the handwriting was shaky, the significance was anything but small. As per Crews, it was the first time she was able to write anything remotely resembling a signature for the past 20 years.
In later posts, Crews stated that she was taking requests from social media users for images that she could draw.
Image credits: X/Audrey Crews
So far, she has drawn everything from cats to faces to trees using only her mind.
She also shared a video featuring an exercise developed by Neuralink to help improve her accuracy.
Neuralink’s ambitious brain implants could be a massive leap forward
Image credits: Neuralink
Elon Musk co-founded Neuralink in 2016 with the goal of merging human intelligence with machines.
In 2019, the company unveiled the N1 implant, the same model now inside Crews’s brain. She is currently one of nine people who have been implanted with Neuralink’s BCI.
Her success follows that of Noland Arbaugh, Neuralink’s first patient, who was also paralyzed from the neck down.
Image credits: X/Audrey Crews
Arbaugh has garnered quite an impressive audience on social media with over 128,000 followers on X, and he has appeared in presentations playing video games using his mind.
During a presentation earlier this year, Neuralink featured Arbaugh and four other Telepathy users playing a round of Mario Kart together.
A second demonstration featured two Telepathy users playing Call of Duty, which involved more complex controls, using their minds.
Image credits: X/Audrey Crews
Neuralink’s current implants can only help users interact with tech devices, though Musk has mentioned an upcoming product called BlindSight, which would be designed to help people who are visually impaired.
Plans are underway for Neuralink to have its first BlindSight implant on a human by late 2025 or early 2026. Considering Elon Musk’s tendency to be late, however, it would not be surprising if BlindSight’s first trials end up starting later next year.
Crews, for her part, is just happy that she has regained some control over her life.
When asked on social media if she ever imagined doing something like this again, Crews responded with “Not in all my wildest dreams, but the future is here.”
Elon Musk echoed the sentiment, reposting her story and writing: “She is controlling her computer just by thinking. Most people don’t realize this is possible.”
Crews plans to write a book, and now she actually can
Despite her new abilities, Crews is still grounded. She knows her Telepathy implant would not allow her to walk again or regain sensation in her limbs.
But that hasn’t dampened her optimism. Instead, she’s setting a new goal. According to Crews, she is writing a book about her journey.
“I’ve been a quadriplegic since the age of 16, so I have lots to tell,” she said.
Image credits: Neuralink
Netizens have proven very supportive of Crews’ recent efforts, with many congratulating her for regaining part of her life back. Others also credited Musk and his team for their work.
“That's amazing, I'm happy for her!!” one commenter wrote.
“How wonderful for her and all the other people this has and will help,” another stated.
“This is fantastic news for so many people. You may not like Musk, but at least he is financing a technology that will be of benefit to hopefully many people,” another commenter wrote.
Social media users reacted to Crews’ Telepathy implant on social media
