Elon Musk Says Neuralink's Blindsight Implant Will Help People See Radar, Infrared Like A 'Superpower' Ahead Of Human Trial Next Year

Elon Musk says that his BCI company, Neuralink, will conduct the first human trial of its Blindsight brain implant within the next year.

What Happened: "In the next 6–12 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," the billionaire said in an interview with Y Combinator on Thursday.

He also outlined how the company has seen some results in Monkeys during its research. "One of our monkeys has had a visual implant for 3 years," adding that the vision through the implant would be fairly low resolution initially.

However, Musk was also quick to tout the implant's capability to let the recipient see multi-spectral wavelengths. "Long term, it'll be very high resolution and you'll be able to see multi-spectral wavelengths," he said before adding that people could see ultraviolet rays, infrared and even radar, "like a superpower situation."

Musk also added that cybernetic implants like Neuralink will be "augmenting human capabilities dramatically," while also enhancing human intelligence as well as senses.

Why It Matters: Musk's comments reiterate his previous claims of the company's Blindsight implant being able to restore vision in completely blind people. Neuralink would be conducting the first-ever human trial for the implant in the UAE next year.

Neuralink also recently added a sixth recipient of its BCI implant, who demonstrated that he could play a video game with his thoughts within a week of receiving the implant.

Interestingly, as Musk touts Neuralink, the BCI company raised over $650 million in Series E funding, with Cathie Wood‘s investment firm ARK Invest among the investors, which led to the company boasting a current valuation of $9 billion.

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