TECH mogul Elon Musk has shared that one of his companies is currently working on a brain implant that will help people with vision problems see.
His announcement came after a father shared his teen son’s ongoing struggle with a rare eye condition.
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“Neuralink is working on a vision chip, which will be ready in a few years,” Musk said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“We (are) waiting for regulatory approval for our first human.”
The tweet was a response to a post from Marcus House, whose 14-year-old son Alex is mostly blind in one eye and almost legally blind in the other.
“(He) has a rare eye condition in the CRB1 Retinal Dystrophy family,” the father said.
“Each day is a challenge, but it has never stopped his love of learning,” the father said.
“He manages to keep up at a regular school even with the hardship.”
House was looking for support from a parent of a child with a similar condition
“Although my wonderful wife and I have dealt well with this psychologically so far, the past few months I’ve been personally struggling,” he said.
“Is there anyone out there that has a child with a similar CRB1 condition? Perhaps one that has a lot of expertise with this?
“I sure would love to get another perspective on how to help him cope with the new challenges that teens face.”
Musk noted that the information he shared is “not much consolation” when it comes to House’s personal struggles.
But he added that this vision chip is a top priority for Neuralink.
“That is the next area after enabling phone/computer telepathy for those who have lost their mind-body connection,” Musk said.
The company is currently looking for volunteers with paralysis to test out this first project, Bloomberg reported.
Participants will have a piece of their skull cut out so a robot can weave metal threads into their brain.
If the surgery and device are successful, patients should eventually be able to move their dormant limbs.
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