New Brain Implant Allows Man with ALS to Control Amazon's Alexa with His Mind

A 64-year-old man paralyzed by ALS was able to communicate via his thoughts to his smart devices using a new type of brain implant that avoids potentially risky brain surgery.

The man, identified only as “Mark” in a YouTube video uploaded Monday by Synchron, a New York-based company that makes the brain-computer interface, was apparently able to control a range of Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, including answering video calls, using just mind control. In a previous demonstration, Mark used Synchron’s brain-computer interface to interact with an Apple Vision Pro headset.

Thus far, the device is only available to participants in Synchron’s clinical trial study, a company spokesperson told Decrypt. The spokesperson said that information from the trial would be made available to the public at the end of the month. “After that, we will need to conduct a pivotal study before submitting to FDA for clearance,” the spokesperson said. “We haven't given specific guidance on the exact timing of when the device will be available.”

The new Synchron device “is bridging the gap between neurotechnology and consumer tech, making it possible for people with paralysis to regain control of their environment,” Synchron founder and CEO Tom Oxley said in a statement. “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.”

Launched in 2016, Synchron is one of a growing number of neurotechnology companies testing their technology on human subjects. Those companies include Blackrock Neurotech, Prophetic, Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes, and Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

In January, Neuralink implanted its device in the brain of Noland Arbaugh, an Arizona man left without the use of his limbs after an accident. A second patient was implanted with the Neuralink chip in August.

However, in May, concerns over Neuralink’s use of brain surgery led Dr. Benjamin Rapoport, a neuroscientist who co-founded Neuralink, to leave the company. “Those (electrodes) have the drawback of doing some amount of brain damage when they're inserted into the brain,” Rapoport told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

Unlike Neuralink, which requires brain surgery to implant its device, Synchron said its brain interface device is less invasive and implanted in the blood vessel on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain. The “Stentrode is inserted through the jugular vein and snaked up to a blood vessel over the motor cortex of the brain," the Synchron spokesperson said.

Once implanted, it is designed to detect and wirelessly transmit motor intent out of the brain.

Signals from the Synchron Stentrode are sent to an “Implanted Receiver Transmitter” device the user wears. Those signals are then sent to a processing device, which interprets and relays the signal to the user’s device that they want to control.