If AI 2027 proves correct, hearing loss could be solved within 5 years

AI 2027 (https://ai-2027.com) is a forecasting scenario created by industry experts that predicts AI systems progressing from highly capable agents to automated AI research and potentially superhuman scientific research within the next few years.

If anything remotely resembling that trajectory occurs (and by some accounts its predictions are already being outpaced), hearing restoration seems like the kind of problem that should become scientifically solvable within at least 5 years. AI could simultaneously attack hair cell regeneration, synaptic repair, gene therapy, cochlear biology, drug discovery and high bandwidth cochlear/brainstem implants at a speed many orders of magnitude faster than human research.

So by the early 2030s I think it is plausible that either biological restoration of hearing or an implant capable of near natural hearing could be technically solved.

The obvious caveat is translation: even if AI can design something that works, current clinical trial and regulatory frameworks could remain an excruciating bottleneck. The science might be solved years before ordinary patients are actually allowed access to it.