OpenAI and Sam Altman plan to invest in Merge Labs, which will once again cross the path of Elon Musk, as the startup is engaged in the same business as Neuralink - the development of brain implants. This is reported by TechCrunch.
Details of the deal are scarce, but the deal could value the startup at $850 million. According to sources, a final investment decision has not yet been made, but Sam Altman has repeatedly expressed interest in merging humans and machines, even writing about it on his blog back in 2017.
"The merge can take a lot of forms: We could plug electrodes into our brains, or we could all just become really close friends with a chatbot. But I think a merge is probably our best-case scenario," Altman wrote.
Merge Labs is also working with Alex Blania, who runs Tools for Humanity, a startup co-founded by Sam Altman himself, which is developing the Orb Mini, a device that can determine whether a user is human or an AI agent.
As for the main competitor in this area, Neuralink received permission to test its brain implants in Europe in early August, and earlier, in June, it attracted $650 million in investment. By investing in Merge Labs, Altman will once again begin to compete directly with Musk, whom he called a hypocrite the day before.
In addition to Musk's company, there are several other players in the industry, such as the startup Paradromics, which successfully implanted its neurocomputer interface into a person in June. Earlier, in May, Valve founder Gabe Newell also joined the game and invested in the startup Starfish Technologies. Brain implants are also being tested in China.