Brain-computer interface trials are taking off

Casey Harrell, a man living with ALS who cannot speak without assistance, has spent nearly three years using a brain-computer interface that restores his ability to communicate—a milestone researchers describe as marking him as the first sustained 'power user' of such an implant. The story arrives as BCI clinical trials are expanding broadly, moving the technology from proof-of-concept toward something closer to clinical reality. The human stakes here are concrete and significant: for people with degenerative conditions that strip away voice and movement, these devices are not enhancements but lifelines.