Neuralink Is Working On Vision-Enhancing Implants, Elon Musk Says

Elon Musk’s latest venture: Using Neuralink to help people with vision loss see.

Elon Musk engaged in a fireside chat Thursday with famed startup accelerator Y Combinator. During the discussion, when asked about his brain-computer interface venture, Neuralink, Musk revealed the incredible progress the company has achieved. Perhaps the most key development that the technology titan shared is that the BCI company will soon be doing vision empowering implants to try and help those with blindness to see again.

If achieved, this would be a huge advancement. The company astounded the global tech community when it released its famed “Monkey MindPong” demonstration just four years ago, showing a 9-year-old Macaque monkey using a Neuralink BCI to control a video game using only its thoughts. Since then, Neuralink has advanced its technology rapidly, receiving Food and Drug Administration clearance for human trials two years ago. The company’s vision is to “restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs and unlock new dimensions of human potential.” One primary way is to use the chip to restore function to those with paralytic conditions; the chip seeks to relay patients’ brain signals to control computer systems and robotic arms.

The company’s latest work, per Musk’s remarks, involves an entirely novel angle: enabling people with blindness to experience vision. He commented that “in the next six to 12 months, we’ll be doing our first implants for vision, where even if somebody is completely blind, we can write directly to the visual cortex.” Reportedly, the company has already tested this: “one of our monkeys has had the visual implant for three years,” Musk explained.

With this technology, though the actual sense of vision will not be restored, the chip will seek to directly write into the part of the brain that processes vision, meaning that users could potentially share a very similar experience. Musk also explained that the chip may only enable low-resolution processing at first, but with time, it should improve to higher resolutions. Users may eventually be able to process “multi-spectral wavelengths” including even “ultraviolet and infrared bands” — perhaps akin to “having a superpower.”

Undoubtedly, BCI technology has come a long way, and the sector is rapidly growing. Last month, Apple announced that it is working with its own BCI partners to develop technology to enable users to control its ecosystem using only their thoughts. The company is partnering with Synchron, another big player in the BCI field, and Nvidia to establish the standards for BCI protocols.

More recently, Paradromics, another prominent name in the BCI space, completed its first human implant. The company has inked an important partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Neom investment fund. Another famous name in the space is Precision Neuroscience, which recently secured a green light from the FDA on an important component in its wider ecosystem. Thus, the competition is certainly growing as the research and funding within this space has expanded significantly.

One major advantage that Neuralink has above the rest is that it works well in conjunction with Musk’s other ventures; that is, Musk has the opportunity to leverage the best of his work across his wider business portfolio, including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, to collaborate with Neuralink’s technology. For example, Tesla’s developments with its Optimus humanoid bot could potentially serve as a great conduit for Neuralink users to effectuate action with their thoughts. Additionally, the progress that xAI has made with deep learning capabilities may significantly augment Neuralink’s work. Indeed, Musk’s broader ecosystem, especially when working in conjunction, has significant potential in the years ahead.

Nevertheless, the entire BCI sector must remain focused on the key elements of patient safety and outcomes. The insertion procedures for these implants are incredibly intricate, and the work being done requires an astounding amount of attention to detail. However, if executed correctly, the technology has incredible potential to significantly improve health outcomes.