OpenAI’s Sam Altman Bets on Mind-Reading Tech — No Surgery Required

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is taking a new step in the realm of AI… this time straight into the human brain. 

Reports say Altman is working on a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup called Merge Labs, which aims to connect the human mind with computers without surgery. The venture is being co-founded with Alex Blania, Altman’s longtime collaborator, who also worked with him on Worldcoin, the iris-scanning crypto project. 

According to Alex Heath’s Sources newsletter, Altman has brought in Mikhail Shapiro, an award-winning biomolecular engineer from the California Institute of Technology, to help lead the venture. Shapiro is known for pioneering noninvasive neural imaging techniques that use ultrasound instead of implants.

His involvement hints at a significant difference between Merge and Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which implants chips directly into the brain. 

Sound waves over scalpels

Rather than drilling into the skull, Merge Labs reportedly plans to use sound waves and magnetic fields to detect brain activity. The concept builds on Shapiro’s years of research into noninvasive neural imaging.

In a recent talk cited by Sources, he explained that it’s “easier to introduce genes into cells” so they can respond to ultrasound instead of inserting electrodes into brain tissue. He described his mission as “to develop ways to interface with neurons in the brain and cells elsewhere in the body that would be less invasive.”

This approach aligns closely with Altman’s stated discomfort with Neuralink’s surgical model. During a press dinner in August, Altman said he “would definitely not sew something to my brain” and added, “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,” as reported by Sources.

That idea echoes a 2017 blog post Altman wrote titled “The Merge,” where he predicted that humans and machines would eventually combine.

“I believe the merge has already started, and we are a few years in,” he wrote. “We are already in the phase of co-evolution — the AIs affect, effect, and infect us, and then we improve the AI.”

Merge Lab expected to raise about $250M

The startup is reportedly in talks to raise hundreds of millions of dollars, with the Financial Times reporting that Merge Labs expects to raise around $250 million from OpenAI’s venture fund and other private investors, and is valued at around $850 million. Altman is expected to serve as chairman but will not take on a day-to-day role in the new company.

Though Merge Labs hasn’t been officially launched yet, its emergence adds a new layer to Altman’s ongoing rivalry with Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with him before leaving in 2018. Neuralink’s technology, which involves surgically implanted chips, is set to start clinical trials in Great Britain, as patients with neurological conditions are already signing up.

Altman’s approach, however, could reshape the field by removing the surgical barrier entirely, a path that could make brain-computer interfaces safer and more accessible.

Research shows that a security flaw can turn Altman’s newly launched ChatGPT Atlas browser into an attack vector against its own users.