And there's more amazing stuff coming. They're making significant progress over there. I was talking to somebody who works there. And you know, it's it's it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be a process. But they're making significant progress and they're going to have, I think, even bigger announcements in the coming year.View on YouTube
Within roughly a year after March 2024, Neuralink did in fact make multiple, clearly more substantial public announcements about its brain–computer interface progress than the initial quadriplegic chess demo.
Key developments and announcements in that period:
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Second human patient and improved performance (August 2024)
In August 2024, Elon Musk announced that Neuralink had successfully implanted its device in a second trial patient, with the implant “working very well” and providing “a lot of signal, a lot of electrodes.” Reports noted that this second patient, identified as Alex, did not suffer the thread‑retraction complication seen in the first patient and was using the device not only to play video games but also to learn 3D object design, demonstrating more varied and functional real‑world use than the initial chess demo alone. (business-standard.com) -
Third human patient and upgraded hardware (early 2025)
By early 2025, the Associated Press reported that Musk had confirmed a third human recipient of the Neuralink implant. Musk highlighted hardware improvements—more electrodes, higher bandwidth, and longer battery life—and said that earlier recipients were using the implant for activities like gaming and design software, indicating continuing technical progress and broader capabilities beyond the first public demo. (apnews.com) -
Regulatory progress for advanced applications (vision restoration, September 2024)
In September 2024, Neuralink’s experimental vision‑restoration implant Blindsight received the FDA’s Breakthrough Device designation, a notable regulatory milestone that signaled serious advancement toward more ambitious BCI applications (restoring vision by directly stimulating visual cortex). (en.wikipedia.org)
All of these announcements—multiple additional human implants with improved performance and broader tasks, plus a major FDA breakthrough designation for an advanced BCI application—occurred between August 2024 and early 2025, i.e., well within one year of the March 22, 2024 podcast. They are materially more significant than the initial single‑patient chess demonstration alone, matching Jason’s expectation of “significant progress” and “even bigger announcements in the coming year.”