A man afflicted with ALS has become the first person in the world to control an Amazon Alexa digital assistant through his thoughts — thanks to a brain implant created by a New York-based neurotech startup.
Synchron — a company specializing in medical technology solutions — has implanted its brain-computer interface (BCI) in a blood vessel on the brain of Mark, a 64-year-old man living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
ALS (formerly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is a neurological disorder that affects motor neurons, the nerve cells in the brain, and the spinal cord, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Since implanting the device — which did not require open brain surgery — Mark has become the first human to use his thoughts to control an Amazon Fire tablet.
Mark can stream shows, make video calls, play music, control smart home devices, shop online, and even read books by mentally tapping on icons on the tablet, the Brooklyn-based company said in a press release to Business Wire.
Synchron’s BCI was implanted in a blood vessel on the “surface of the motor cortex of the brain via the jugular vein,” which the company said was a “minimally-invasive endovascular procedure.”
The implant allows Mark to “wirelessly transmit motor intent” from his brain to “personal devices with hands-free point-and-click.”
“The integration with smart technology and my BCI is something I’m really excited about. It’s hard to imagine living in our modern world without the ability to access or control connected devices like Amazon’s Alexa and Echo products that are so prevalent in my daily life,” Mark said.
“To be able to manage important aspects of my environment and control access to entertainment gives me back the independence that I’m losing.”
By trialing this integration with Alexa, the company hopes to expand the possibilities for smart home automation for people with severe paralysis.
“Synchron’s BCI is bridging the gap between neurotechnology and consumer tech, making it possible for people with paralysis to regain control of their environment,” CEO and Founder of Synchron, Tom Oxley, said in the press release.
“While many smart home systems rely on voice or touch, we are sending control signals directly from the brain, bypassing the need for these inputs.”
Oxley said the company is “thrilled to utilize our BCI to access Alexa capabilities” and believes their neurological technology will “address a critical unmet need for millions of people with mobility and voice impairment.”
In August, Neuralink, the neurotechnology startup owned by Elon Musk, announced plans to insert a BCI — designed to allow paralyzed patients to use digital devices by thinking alone — into a second human test subject.
Noland Arbaugh, a 30-year-old Arizona man paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident eight years ago, received the first-ever Neuralink implant in January of this year.
In March, Arbaugh demonstrated how he can use his thoughts to control a computer cursor to play games and email during a live stream on X.
In May, it was announced that the device had unexpectedly begun to detach from Arbaugh’s skull but that the problem had been fixed.
Musk has predicted that hundreds of people will have Neuralinks within a few years and “millions within 10 years.”
Also in August, researchers at Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne unveiled a brain that converts thought-to-text with 91% accuracy and is even smaller than Neuralink’s chip.
Progress in the industry is happening so rapidly that the FDA held a workshop in late September about clinical outcomes assessments for BCIs.