New ‘Artificial Eye’ Gives Blind People New Hope

A tray of example glass eyes on display. Reuters
A tray of example glass eyes on display. Reuters
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New ‘Artificial Eye’ Gives Blind People New Hope

A tray of example glass eyes on display. Reuters
A tray of example glass eyes on display. Reuters

A team of US researchers has, for the first time, developed a fully 3-D printed array of light receptors on a hemispherical surface. This discovery marks a significant step toward creating a “bionic eye” that could someday help blind people see or improve sighted people see better.

Michael McAlpine, a researcher from the University of Minnesota, said: “Bionic eyes are usually thought of as science fiction, but now we are closer than ever using a multi-material 3-D printer.”

Researchers used a custom-built 3-D printer, and they started with a base ink of silver particles. Then, they used semiconducting polymer materials to print photodiodes, which convert light into electricity. The entire process takes about an hour, the German News Agency reported.

The Techxplore website cited McAlpine who said that the most surprising part of the process was the 25 percent efficiency in converting the light into electricity they achieved with the fully 3-D-printed semiconductors.

McAlpine said the next steps aim to create a prototype with more receptors that are even more efficient. They'd also like to find a way to print on a soft material that can be implanted into a real eye.

McAlpine's drive to create a bionic eye is a little more personal.

“My mother is blind in one eye, and whenever I talk about my work, she says, When are you going to print me a bionic eye?” he said.



Meta Reportedly Poaches Three OpenAI Researchers

FILE PHOTO: A Meta logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Meta logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo/File Photo
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Meta Reportedly Poaches Three OpenAI Researchers

FILE PHOTO: A Meta logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Meta logo is pictured at a trade fair in Hannover Messe, in Hanover, Germany, April 22, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo/File Photo

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hired three OpenAI researchers to join his "superintelligence" team, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accused the Facebook owner of trying to poach its employees.

An OpenAI spokesperson confirmed the departure of the three employees from the company, without giving further details. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Meta hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai, who were all working at the ChatGPT-owner's Zurich office, the WSJ reported, citing sources.

Last week, Altman said Meta had offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them.

Once recognized as a leader in open-source AI models, Meta has suffered from staff departures and postponed launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competing models from Google, OpenAI, and China's DeepSeek.

"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Altman had said.

Meta recently hired 28-year-old Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to work on its "superintelligence" efforts. The company also took a 49% stake for $14.3 billion in Scale AI.

Meta is now trying to paint a turnaround as reports suggest Zuckerberg is setting up a team of experts to achieve so-called "artificial general intelligence" (AGI).