{"slug": "paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal", "title": "Paradromics' first BCI user generates real-time speech as trial adds personal devices", "summary": "Paradromics' first Connect-One study participant, a Michigan woman in her 60s with motor neuron disease, used the company's implanted Connexus brain-computer interface to generate real-time speech, answering open-ended questions and speaking with her grandchildren on a live phone call, Paradromics announced on September 14. The Austin-based company, founded in 2015 by CEO Matt Angle, also said in an August 26 FDA study expansion that Connect-One participants may use compatible personal laptops, tablets and phones through its Convey software; Connexus remains investigational and the results are company-reported from a single participant.", "body_md": "# Paradromics' first BCI user generates real-time speech as trial adds personal devices\n\n**Founder Matt Angle's decade-long effort is moving from neural recordings toward daily communication, though Connexus remains investigational and human evidence is early.**\n\n        By [RuntimeWire Staff](https://runtimewire.com/author/runtimewire-staff)\n        · Published \n\nPrimary source: [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/naveenrao/2026/09/23/its-personal-paradromics-paces-a-landmark-year-for-implanted-bci/)\n\n## Why it matters\n\nParadromics is testing whether an implanted BCI can move from a lab demonstration toward communication and device control in daily life. Its first real-time speech result is a meaningful early milestone, while the investigational study still has to establish safety, reliability and performance across more participants.\n\n[Paradromics](https://paradromics.com/?ref=runtimewire) founder and CEO [Matt Angle](https://paradromics.com/company/?ref=runtimewire) has spent years trying to move high-resolution brain recordings out of research labs and into a medical device. In September, the first participant in Paradromics' study used its implanted [Connexus system](https://paradromics.com/connexus/?ref=runtimewire) to generate real-time speech; an FDA study expansion announced in August also lets study participants use compatible personal laptops, tablets and phones with the system.\n\nThe milestones put two parts of Angle's original bet together: a device that can decode a person's intended words, and software that can carry those words into the digital tools they already use. The first participant, a Michigan woman in her 60s with motor neuron disease, chose what to say, answered open-ended questions and spoke with her grandchildren during a live phone call, according to [Paradromics' September 14th announcement](https://paradromics.com/news/paradromics-achieves-real-time-speech-connexus-brain-computer-interface/?ref=runtimewire). Paradromics reported that she used both attempted and imagined speech. Those are company-reported results from one participant, not evidence yet of performance across a larger patient group.\n\nAngle founded Austin-based Paradromics in 2015 after studying biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon, earning a neuroscience PhD at Heidelberg and completing postdoctoral work at Stanford focused on neural recording and materials science. Paradromics was built around a clear engineering and clinical challenge: translate neural activity into communication through a fully implantable, wireless device. The Connexus array contains 421 microelectrodes, according to the [University of Michigan Health account of the first implantation](https://www.michiganmedicine.org/news-release/university-michigan-implants-first-human-paradromics-wireless-brain-computer-interface-designed?ref=runtimewire).\n\n### From a lab setup to personal devices\n\nIn its [August 26th FDA expansion announcement](https://paradromics.com/news/paradromics-receives-fda-approval-to-expand-bci-access-to-personal-computing-devices-in-connect-one-clinical-study/?ref=runtimewire), Paradromics said participants in its Connect-One early-feasibility study could use compatible personal devices through Convey, its user-facing software. Paradromics chief clinical officer William Marks described the change in [Forbes' September 23rd interview](https://www.forbes.com/sites/naveenrao/2026/09/23/its-personal-paradromics-paces-a-landmark-year-for-implanted-bci/?ref=runtimewire) as a move away from a laptop and software confined to a medical-device setup. Convey is intended to connect decoded neural intent to outputs on a user's laptop, smartphone or tablet.\n\nThe communication system has to fit around the user's day and work beyond a research session. The FDA action expands what may be evaluated within the study; it does not make Connexus an approved commercial product. Paradromics describes Connexus as investigational, and its immediate work remains testing safety and function in an early clinical study.\n\nThe September demonstration is compelling but still a narrow slice of evidence. Paradromics has not reported human speech-decoding accuracy, vocabulary size, speech rate or long-term durability in the materials here. A participant choosing her own words and speaking with family shows a different kind of use than researcher-selected copy tasks. It does not yet answer how reliably the system will work across people, settings or extended periods of use.\n\n### A clinical company, not just a neural interface\n\nParadromics received FDA authorization for Connect-One in November 2025 and implanted its first participant on June 17th, 2026, at University of Michigan Health. In July, Paradromics appointed Marks, a neurologist who previously held clinical leadership roles at Verily and spent nearly two decades at UCSF, as its first chief clinical officer. His hire adds experience in clinical development as Paradromics moves from demonstrating the technology toward establishing evidence and workflows that a medical device requires.\n\nThe funding history reflects that long path. Paradromics announced a [$33 million Series A in May 2023](https://paradromics.com/news/paradromics-raises-33-million-in-funding-achieves-breakthrough-medical-device-designation-from-fda/?ref=runtimewire), led by Prime Movers Lab, with Westcott Investment Group, Dolby Family Ventures and Green Sands Equity also participating. That round was framed around getting Connexus toward human trials. The subsequent milestones have been clinical: regulatory authorization, implantation, communication, and now expanded device use within the study. Paradromics has not disclosed a valuation in the materials available here.\n\nRuntimeWire reported in June that [Paradromics had implanted its first speech-restoration trial participant](https://runtimewire.com/article/paradromics-connexus-first-speech-trial-patient). The September update adds an early answer to what that implant might enable: communication shaped by the participant herself, with access extending toward the devices she already uses.\n\nFor Angle, that brings the founding thesis closer to an everyday test. The near-term measure is whether people with severe speech and motor impairments can communicate safely and reliably with a system they can use beyond a research laptop. Paradromics has shown an initial real-time example and secured room in its study to test a more personal computing setup. The clinical work now has to establish how well those experiences hold up over time and for additional participants.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal", "canonical_source": "https://runtimewire.com/article/paradromics-real-time-speech-personal-devices", "published_at": "2026-09-24 00:53:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-24 01:29:38.677400+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-research"], "entities": ["Paradromics", "Matt Angle", "Connexus", "Convey", "Connect-One", "William Marks", "FDA", "University of Michigan Health"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/paradromics-first-bci-user-generates-real-time-speech-as-trial-adds-personal.jsonld"}}