Elon Musk didn’t fund a Neuralink implant procedure for a 7-year-old named ‘Lily Thompson’

A Facebook user shared a heartwarming story about billionaire businessman and Neuralink Corp. co-founder Elon Musk paying for a 7-year-old girl’s life-changing medical procedure.

The post described a child named Lily Thompson who was diagnosed with a "rare neurological disorder that left her unable to walk, speak, or even breathe without assistance." After Musk learned of her condition, the post said, he "funded an experimental procedure at a top California hospital, implanting a Neuralink chip to repair damaged neural connections."

"Lily’s family received an unexpected lifeline when Musk personally pledged to cover every penny of her care, including a pioneering surgery that could restore her chance at a normal childhood," the March 27 Facebook post read.

The post featured an image of Musk, who is an adviser to President Donald Trump, beside a child’s hospital bed as the child gazed away from the camera, a tangle of tubes and devices attached to her head and chest. It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

But no evidence supports this narrative. PolitiFact found no credible news reports showing Thompson is a real person who received Musk’s assistance.

Neuralink, which Musk helped launch in 2016, produces a chip designed to be implanted in a human brain to help people with mobility issues control computers or mobile devices with their thoughts. PolitiFact contacted Neuralink but received no reply.

The image in the Facebook post appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence. Rijul Gupta, CEO of deepfake detection company Deep Media, told PolitiFact its deepfake detection system said the image "contains evidence of generative AI," which means it has a high probability of being AI-generated.

"The lack of details on some of the text on the sick girl's medical equipment, and the perspective inconsistencies in the background details on the wall are evidence which support this conclusion," Gupta said in an email.

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Musk has previously posted on X about Neuralink recipients. In January, he said there were three patients with a Neuralink implant. The Neuralink blog named them as "Noland, Alex and Brad." There was no mention of a girl named Lily Thompson. News reports identified one of the recipients as 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh; the other two recipients have not been publicly identified.

Neuralink’s clinical trial study overview said people should be 22 to 75 to be eligible to receive the chip. Bloomberg reported that Neuralink estimates each implant surgery costs the company about $10,500, and it charges insurers about $40,000.

"All three individuals are unable to move their arms and legs — Noland and Alex due to spinal cord injury (SCI) and Brad due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)," read a Feb. 5 Neuralink statement. "They each volunteered to participate in Neuralink’s PRIME Study, a clinical trial to demonstrate that the Link (the Neuralink implant) is safe and useful in the daily lives of people living with paralysis."

Searching for the Facebook post’s caption text led us to a March 23 article published on News.Citestesitu.Com, which provides no information about its owner or authors. According to the article, Musk learned of Thompson on March 22; the article’s publication date suggests the surgery took place within a day, which is implausible.

We rate the claim that Musk funded a Neuralink implant for a girl with a rare neurological disorder False.