{"id":6260,"date":"2025-10-27T18:02:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sam-altman-startup-read-brain\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T18:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T18:02:26","slug":"sam-altman-startup-read-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/sam-altman-startup-read-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Altman Funding Biomedical Startup to Read Human Brain Using Sound Waves"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is obsessed with codifying your biology. First it was scanning your eyeballs<\/a> \u2014 and now it\u2019s scanning your thoughts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to new reporting<\/a> from the Sources by Alex Heath<\/em> newsletter via The Verge<\/em><\/a>, the billionaire\u2019s new brain computer interface startup, Merge Labs, appears to be pursuing the use of ultrasound to read your mind.<\/p>\n

The insight is based on a new hiring decision by Altman. He\u2019s reportedly tapped Mikhail Shapiro, a famous biomolecular engineer from Caltech, to join the BCI startup, which is yet to be officially announced. Shapiro\u2019s specialty has been researching non-invasive approaches for scanning the human brain which don\u2019t require surgery, unlike the brain implants being developed by Elon Musk\u2019s Neuralink<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In August, the Financial Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that Altman will launch Merge alongside Alex Blania, who heads the eyeball-scanning blockchain startup<\/a> called World, which Altman cofounded and currently serves as chairman of. Altman confirmed that he was launching a Neuralink competitor during a conversation with reporters<\/a> days later, but didn\u2019t go into detail. <\/p>\n

The startup\u2019s name is a reference to a popular idea in the tech sector<\/a> which describes a hypothetical point when humans and machines \u201cmerge\u201d together. Altman wrote an extensive blog post<\/a> on the topic in 2017, citing predictions that this merging could come as soon as 2025 or as late as 2075.<\/p>\n

In a move that will raise questions amid the heightened scrutiny into circular AI dealmaking<\/a>, Merge expects to raise $250 million from OpenAI, and is touting an $850 million valuation for the funding round. Altman himself will not invest in the company, however, and talks remain at an early stage, the FT <\/em>noted. Altman also won\u2019t have a day to day role in the Merge project, its sources said.<\/p>\n

Sources in the new reporting said that Shapiro will be part of Merge\u2019s founding team and has become a key leader in talks with investors. One of his key areas of research has been pioneering the use of gene therapy to make cells visible to ultrasound imaging. In a recent talk highlighted in the reporting, Shapiro explained how it\u2019s \u201ceasier to introduce genes into cells\u201d so they respond to ultrasound, rather than implanting physical electrodes onto the brain.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Altman, who has a longstanding \u2014 and still-heated<\/a> \u2014 rivalry with Musk, has gone on the record trashing the implant-based approach Neuralink uses, saying during a July talk that he \u201cwould definitely not sow something to my brain\u201d that would kill neurons.<\/p>\n

But that seems to be Altman\u2019s only gripe with the tech. Otherwise, he\u2019s all for letting an AI \u2014 his AI, specifically \u2014 probe the rumblings of your mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to be able to think something and have ChatGPT respond to it,\u201d Altman said during that same conversation. \u201cMaybe I want read-only. That seems like a reasonable thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on brain tech: <\/strong>Scientists Say They\u2019ve Found a Way to Vocalize the \u201cInner Voices\u201d of People Who Can\u2019t Speak<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post Sam Altman Funding Biomedical Startup to Read Human Brain Using Sound Waves<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is obsessed with codifying your biology. First it was scanning your eyeballs \u2014 and now it\u2019s scanning your thoughts.\u00a0 According to new reporting from the Sources…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,3449,4249,3844,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-brain","category-brain-implants","category-health-medicine","category-openai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}