By Ina Kim
In September 2024, Elon Musk announced Blindsight. It is a brain-implant device that was developed by Neuralink, which is a neurotechnology company that Elon Musk himself founded. Blindsight is aiming to restore vision to people who are blind by sending visual information directly to the brain.
Commonly, retinal implants are used to improve vision loss. However, Blindsight is built to be implanted in the visual cortex of the brain, where it then processes visual data. The device stimulates neurons using patterns from an external camera, enabling visual perception. Already, the chip has been embedded into monkeys as tests and shown great results. Musk stated himself that one of the monkeys had the brain-implant device for around three years.
While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appointed Blindsight as a “breakthrough device,” the FDA claimed that Blindsight is not considered safe or effective. With technology advancing, Blindsight is being pushed into faster production, but the devices are required to go through clinical trials before the FDA comes into full approval.
Even with the announcement of Blindsight in 2024, there is very little information about Blindsight. There’s not even a mention of Blindsight on the Neuralink Website. There have been many technical hurdles, such as how long Blindsight can last and the surgical and technological risks of inserting a device into the cortex. Overall, with all of the skepticism surrounding the technology, Blindsight may create disappointment from trying to transform the lives of blind individuals.
To confirm any unanswered skepticism, Musk did announce on X (formerly Twitter): “To set expectations correctly, the vision will be at first be [sic] low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential be [sic] better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge.” Overall, this explains how Neuralink has the technology to produce a brain-implant device, but provides the answers to concerns, like low initial resolution.
Experts argue that visual prosthetics are assistive technology, not a cure for blindness. Even with today's technology, restoring natural vision could be nearly impossible. This only leads to more skepticism about whether Blindsight could even live up to the hype to change the world.
Philip Troyk, a biomedical engineer at the Illinois Institute of Technology, states, “Some of the [Neuralink] technology is exciting, and has potential. The way the messaging is being done detracts from that, potentially.”
