Third Neuralink brain implant patient able to communicate despite non-verbal ALS

The third human to receive a Neuralink brain implant, who also has non-verbal ALS, is now able to speak in his own voice thanks to the advancing technology combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Brad Smith said in a video on X that even though having the disease "sucks," he is happy, and God has answered his prayers and "life is good." He also talked about his journey with ALS and the hope he was given after becoming the third human to receive a Neuralink brain transplant.

Neuralink, which was started by billionaire Elon Musk, said in a blog post in January that there are three people with Telepathy, including "Brad."

"All three individuals are unable to move their arms and legs – Noland and Alex due to spinal cord injury (SCI) and Brad due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)," the post read. "They each volunteered to participate in Neuralink’s PRIME Study, a clinical trial to demonstrate that the Link is safe and useful in the daily lives of people living with paralysis."

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Smith is unable to speak or move any part of his body, besides the corners of his mouth and eyes.

In the video he shared on X, Smith said he relies on the Neuralink implant for all communication, adding he made the video using the Brain Computer Interface (BCI) to control the mouse on his MacBook Pro.
The voice in the video is his own, and it was cloned using AI from recordings, before he lost his voice.

While explaining how Neuralink has impacted his life, Smith gave an overview of how the technology works, but he also talked about how he ended up in his current status.

"I have ALS, a really weird disease that kills the motor neurons that control my muscles, but not affecting my mind," he said. "My experience has been pretty interesting, starting with a shoulder injury that would not heal and ending up with my current status. I cannot move anything but my eyes and I'm totally reliant on a ventilator to keep me alive and breathing."

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Before receiving the implant, Smith said he had to use an eye gaze control computer for all communication. But it worked best in dark rooms, and he said he was basically Batman, as he was stuck in a dark room.

"Neuralink lets me go outside and ignore lighting changes," he said. "The implant is in my motor cortex, which is the part of my brain that controls body movement."

An image of the implant showed a device about the size of five U.S. quarters stacked.

Smith said it replaced a hole in his skull, and the threads were placed just a few millimeters into his brain by a robot, avoiding the blood vessels so there is almost no bleeding.

Once connected, the device communicates with a computer using Bluetooth and the computer does "a lot of the processing," according to Smith.

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He then showed a video of the data coming from the 1,024 electrodes in his brain.

The data and technology allow Smith to communicate using a computer, and he spends time training it by moving a curser around on the computer screen. He also created features that make communicating and computing easier.

"I created a keypad using the Mac accessibility keyboard to make some keystrokes easy to use," Smith said. "Things like select all, copy, paste, undo, and ways to navigate the page are all really useful. And I can use the toolbar and some shortcuts."

But the hardest thing about having ALS, he added, is thinking faster than he can type. So, he worked with the team at Neuralink to create a chat application that uses AI to listen to the conversation and produce options to say as responses.

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"It uses Grok 3 and an AI clone of my old voice to generate options for me to say," Smith said. "It is not perfect, but it keeps me in the conversation, and it comes up with some great ideas.

"My friend asked me for ideas for his girlfriend who loves horses. I chose the option that told him in my voice to get her a bouquet of carrots," he continued. "What a creative and funny idea. We are also working on a faster way to type with the cursor."

Ultimately, Smith said his experience with Neuralink has been "fantastic," because it has improved his life.

He also said he is happy to be involved in something that will help many people.

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"Don't get me wrong, ALS still really sucks, but I am talking about the big picture. That is what I have learned," he said. "God loves me and my family. He has answered our prayers in unexpected ways. He has blessed my kids and our family. 

"So, I'm learning to trust that God knows what he is doing," Smith added, before turning toward his wife Tiffany and his kids. "The big picture is I am happy. Tiffany is the greatest person I've ever known, and I get to spend eternity with her. My kids are doing well, especially under the circumstances. And I can control the computer with telepathy. Life is good."