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A tiny wireless eye implant has enabled people to regain partial central vision and read. A miniature 2×2-millimeter photovoltaic retinal implant, known as PRIMA, has helped dozens of patients with advanced geographic atrophy from dry age-related macular degeneration regain some central vision, enabling many to read letters, words, and numbers. In a multicenter European trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine, 38 individuals with profound central vision loss received the subretinal implant. At the one-year mark, 81% of the 32 evaluable participants achieved clinically significant improvements—equivalent to gaining about two lines on an eye chart—with many successfully using the device at home for reading tasks. The fully wireless system pairs the implant, featuring 381 photovoltaic pixels, with specialized glasses equipped with a camera. These glasses project near-infrared light patterns onto the chip, which converts them into electrical pulses to activate remaining retinal neurons. Safety assessments concluded that benefits outweighed predominantly mild surgical complications, prompting developer Science Corporation to seek European regulatory approval. That said, the prosthetic vision remains restricted: monochromatic, slow for reading, and requiring extensive user training. It also failed to yield measurable gains in overall quality of life. Critics, including an independent expert, noted the absence of a randomized control arm might inflate perceived benefits, though other ophthalmologists commended the trial's rigor. Ongoing research targets improved versions with higher pixel density, finer resolution, potential color restoration, and applicability to conditions like retinitis pigmentosa. [Frank G. Holz, et al., "Subretinal Photovoltaic Implant to Restore Vision in Geographic Atrophy Due to AMD", New England Journal of Medicine, 2025, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2501396]

Ex-Google DeepMind scientists starting to develop Superintelligence: ReflectionAI Reflection’s lofty mission focuses on building tools that have full autonomy rather than simply serving as a kind of co-pilot or assistant, achieving superintelligence through AI-powered coding agents capable of self-direction. The startup expects that approach to lead more quickly to superintelligence — or AI that is smarter than most humans, more broadly. The company is focused on first automating tedious and rote engineering work, such as migrating software databases or refactoring code. Interesting that everyone is now building ASI directly instead of AGI. Anthropic is probably right that ASI will exist by 2027 at the latest. In any case, more and more researchers now believe this!