Indian business magnate Anand Mahindra has expressed his enthusiasm about Elon Musk’s Neuralink’s potential to revolutionize vision restoration.

Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra and Mahindra, expressed his appreciation for Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink’s latest innovation. On September 19, Mahindra shared Elon Musk’s post about Neuralink’s Blindsight device on X (formerly known as Twitter), commenting, “If this device lives up to these expectations then, much more than Tesla or Space X, THIS will be your most enduring gift to humankind.” The post Anand Mahindra was referring to was made by Elon Musk just previous day, detailing the potential competences of the Blindsight device.

Musk said, “The Blindsight device from Neuralink will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see. Provided the visual cortex is intact, it will even enable those who have been blind from birth to see for the first time. To set expectations correctly, the vision will at first be low resolution, like Atari graphics, but eventually it has the potential to be better than natural vision and enable you to see in infrared, ultraviolet or even radar wavelengths, like Geordi La Forge. Much appreciated, @US_FDA!”

The Blindsight device will be a pathbreaking advancement in neurotechnology, meant to restore vision to those with various types of blindness. According to Musk’s claims, the device could potentially benefit individuals who have lost their eyes and optic nerves, as well as those born deprived of sight.

What is Neuralink’s Blindsight device?

Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink has been granted a “Breakthrough Device” designation from the USFDA for its device Blindsight. This status is granted to medical devices that exhibit promise in treating serious conditions and allows for accelerated development and review processes. While the initial visual output is likely to be low-resolution, Musk claims that future iterations could potentially exceed natural human vision, even letting users to perceive beyond the visible light spectrum.

Blindsight implants a microelectrode array into the visual cortex of an individual’s brain. The array activates neurons, which then provide the person with a visual image. The visual cortex is the portion of one’s brain that receives and processes visual information from the retinas.

Neuralink is a company that has set very high goals. It’s website says, “Neuralink’s ultimate goal is to create a generalized input/output platform capable of interfacing with every aspect of the human brain.” Earlier this year, the company completed its first successful device implantation in a patient, who has since employed the company’s BCI for various applications, including playing video games and online chess.