American tech billionaire Elon Musk on Friday highlighted two brain-computer interface products from Neuralink on social media, aimed at restoring vision and enabling thought-based communication.
Musk wrote on X: "Neuralink's first product is called Telepathy. It allows a person to communicate at high speed with a computer or other humans using only their thoughts. Within a few years, its output bandwidth will far exceed the fastest speed achievable by human speaking or typing."
"Our second product is called Blindsight. As the name suggests, it can restore sight to people who are completely blind or who have never had vision. From an engineering standpoint, it is already ready, and is now only awaiting regulatory approval."
Neuralink's Blindsight technology is designed to bypass the damaged eye and optic nerve, transmitting visual information captured by a camera directly to the brain's visual cortex.
In September 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Blindsight a "breakthrough device" designation; this move is intended to accelerate the regulatory review process, but it does not approve its commercial application. The implant is still in the research stage, and Neuralink has not yet proven that it can restore vision in patients.
Musk has described Neuralink's grand goal as a "Jesus-level miracle," although his earlier prediction that "operating speed will exceed verbal expression" has yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, Musk's mother, Maye Musk, wrote on X: "Amazing! neuralink." She was responding to a video showing a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) allegedly ordering a cup of coffee through Neuralink's Bloom app. The video demonstrated the patient using brain-generated text and synthesized speech to order coffee, illustrating how assistive technology can help achieve independence in daily life.
This demonstration echoes the experience of another ALS patient — Neuralink previously helped that patient (Terry Mandable) communicate with his wife through reconstructed speech.
Musk has also outlined plans to develop more powerful implants, while Neuralink continues to conduct clinical testing.
Maye Musk's reaction was directed at the patient's communication demonstration, not the Blindsight project.
Currently, neither implant has received FDA clearance for commercialization, and clinical results cannot prove their broad effectiveness.
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