Elon Musk’s brain chip startup Neuralink aims to have its artificial visual prosthesis, Blindsight, implanted in a human for the first time by the end of 2025, according to reports.

“We’re hoping, later this year, to have a first device implant for humans, enabling someone who is completely blind to see,” the tech billionaire said in response to a question by an audience member at his Town Hall held in Wisconsin, US.

Musk expressed caution in setting expectations for the implant and said that initially, Blindsight would only be capable of providing low-resolution vision, “like Atari Graphics”, in blind people.

“It’ll start off with very low-resolution but then over time; the implant would eventually enable vision that is superhuma” Musk says.

Blindsight aims to allow individuals who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to perceive their surroundings. It will also allow individuals who have been blind since birth to experience sight for the first time.

Blindsight consists of a microelectrode array implanted in the visual cortex, the region of the brain that processes visual information. It is said to be able to stimulate neurons or nerve cells found in the visual cortex using patterns transmitted from a camera.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted ‘breakthrough’ status to the experimental device in September of the previous year. The FDA awards its breakthrough designation to medical devices that offer treatment or diagnosis for life-threatening illnesses.

 

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Nevertheless, specialists have cautioned that the classification does not imply the firm has created a remedy for blindness. Rather, it focuses on accelerating the creation and evaluation of devices that are presently in development.