A few months ago, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was reportedly preparing to back a brain implant startup called Merge Labs to take on Elon Musk’s Neuralink. The ChatGPT developer was also rumoured to take the help of Alex Blania, the CEO of Tools for Humanity (previously known as World), Altman’s iris-scanning digital ID project.
Now, a report by The Verge suggests the OpenAI CEO is now tapping Mikhail Shapiro, an award-winning biomolecular engineer, to work alongside Blania. While Shapiro’s position in Merge Labs is still unclear, citing sources familiar with the matter, the report states that he will be a part of the company’s founding team and will take on a leading role to talk with investors. Story continues below this ad Also Read | How to delete your digital footprint in 5 steps With Shapiro on board, it seems the brain implant startup is aiming for a very different path than Neuralink.
At Caltech, the biomolecular engineer made significant progress in developing non-invasive methods for neural imaging and control, particularly through the use of ultrasound to interact with the human brain without the need for open-skull surgery. Shapiro has also worked extensively on gene therapy to make cells respond and visible to ultrasound, which is in line with a previous Bloomberg report which hinted at the direction Merge Labs is taking for its first product.
In a recent video, Shapiro also talked about the possibility of using sound waves and a magnetic field to develop a brain-computer interface. Instead of planting electrodes into the brain tissue, he said that it’s “easier to introduce genes into cells” so they can respond to ultrasound.
Earlier this year, in August, Altman said he would not plant anything into his brain, as that would kill his neurons. “I would like to be able to think something and have ChatGPT respond to it. Maybe I want read-only.
That seems like a reasonable thing,” he added. The Financial Times has previously reported that Merge Labs will raise somewhere around $250 million from OpenAI’s venture fund.
It went on to say that Altman will be a co-founder in the company, but won’t be actively participating in everyday activities at the startup.