Featured Image Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor via Getty
Elon Musk just shared an update on his next product which has the potential to change the lives of millions across the world.
Away from self-driving cars, household Tesla robots and ambitious plans to colonise Mars, the world's richest man is leading his cutting-edge technology towards a breakthrough that could impact countless people.
Musk's Neuralink company laid the groundwork here, achieving a major breakthrough mid-last year with one of its first-ever patients.
Noland Arbaugh, who was left paralysed after a diving accident, underwent surgery in January 2024 to have the neurochip implanted directly into his brain.
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The device uses a brain-computer interface (BCI) to detect the tiny electrical impulses generated when humans think about moving, which are then translated into digital commands a computer can understand.
Arbaugh regained the ability to perform tasks, such as moving a cursor across a screen, simply by thinking about it.
Now, the Neuralink founder turned his focus to a new initiative within Neuralink called Blindsight. The clue is in the name, as its tech aims to restore vision to those who have lost it.
According to the tech mogul, Blindsight is designed for patients who've lost both eyes and their optic nerves, or have been blind their whole life, provided their visual cortex remains undamaged.
However, rather than delivering instant results, Blindsight aims to reintroduce vision in gradual stages.
Initially, it will provide low-resolution visual perception, with the potential to advance toward higher resolution over time - and eventually, what Musk describes as 'superhuman capabilities.'
It's hoped that patients who've lost their sight completely could begin perceiving basic shapes and patterns, with image clarity steadily improving as they continue using the device and their brains adapt to the new neural signals.
Taking to X, Musk shared: "Congrats to the Neuralink team for helping many people who have lost use of their body with our Telepathy implant that enables computer use simply by thinking!
"The next generation Neuralink cybernetic augment with 3X capability will be ready later this year."
The neurotechnology company is preparing to launch its first human clinical trials of the Blindsight implant later this year, once regulatory approval is secured.
Instead of attempting to repair the eyes themselves, the company is developing a visual prosthetic that bypasses them completely. A camera will capture an image and transmit it to an implant embedded in the brain.
The implant then sends signals to the visual cortex to recreate the sense of sight, which closely mimics the natural pathway by which the retina normally sends visual signals to the brain, Neuralink noted.
