U-M Using AI And Brain Implants To Aid People With Mobility Issues

ANN ARBOR, March 28, 2025 ~ University of Michigan researchers say a paralyzed man few a drone, with his mind thanks to research at a school.

Two university labs are using artificial intelligence and brain implants are helping people with mobility issues by allowing them to control devices with only their thoughts. Dr. Matthew Willsey, assistant professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan Medical School, said researchers targeted the part of the brain believed to control hand movement and surgically implanted electrodes — small devices that read electrical signals used by the brain to process information — near those areas in the man’s brain. Willsey is doing research that uses brain-computer interfaces or devices that translate brain activity into commands that control an external device.