Elon Musk wants to cure blindness

After the disastrous acquisition of Twitter (now X), 2024 is shaping up to be decidedly better for Elon Musk compared to the previous year. Among the various projects animating the CEO of Tesla's stock portfolio, Neuralink, the company that has been trying for years to enable communication between the human brain and computers, is achieving sensational results not only for the future of technology but for humanity as a whole. Thanks to this technology, Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old quadriplegic man, is now able to move the cursor of a mouse and play chess. This is the result of the first implant on a human after the experimentation clearance in May 2023 and years of testing on animals (around 1,500 including monkeys, sheep, and pigs) that had stirred controversy within the scientific community. A milestone that Elon Musk sees only as a first tenuous manifestation of Neuralink's potential: after "Telepathy," the new technology patented by the company and already in use on monkeys, it promises to cure blindness with "Blindsight."

Noland Arbaugh became quadriplegic in 2016 following an accident while diving into a lake. In a roughly nine-minute video demonstrating the effective functioning of the implant, the man not only manages to move the computer mouse cursor and play a game of chess but also recounts being able to play the video game Civilization VI for eight hours before the implant's battery ran out. Neuralink uses wireless charging, consisting of a small device implanted in the skull from which electrodes extend into the brain. Speaking about the first weeks of testing the system, Arbaugh said the technology is "not perfect" for now and that he encountered "some issues." Despite the vagueness regarding any malfunctions, the success of the implant appears effective and opens up new possibilities for Neuralink (and Musk's aspirations).