OpenAI Invests in Startup That Uses Brain Implants to Detect Cancer

OpenAI’s venture capital arm as well as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund are investing in Coherence Neuro, a startup developing a brain implant to detect and treat cancer.

The investments are part of a $45 million seed funding round for Coherence and reflect Big Tech’s burgeoning interest in brain data. Coherence’s CEO and cofounder Ben Woodington says there is “growing synergy” between the big AI labs and companies building devices to decode the brain, known as brain-computer interfaces.

“The idea of capturing data to train better models and use it to optimize treatments is going to be super important,” he says. “The AI companies seem to be aligned with this thesis as well—that this novel data source is going to be valuable.”

Woodington says AI is a “perfect use case” for brain-computer interfaces because developers of these devices generate massive datasets that are too large for humans to analyze themselves. AI models can help read raw neural data and link it to actions, such as moving a computer cursor or producing synthesized speech.

In January, OpenAI announced that it was directly investing in a new brain-computer interface company, Merge Labs, cofounded by its billionaire CEO Sam Altman. Merge Labs came out of stealth with $252 million in initial funding to pursue ultrasound technology that can decode information from the brain. At the time, OpenAI said it was funding Merge Labs because of a belief that brain-computer interfaces “will create a natural, human-centered way for anyone to seamlessly interact with AI.” (The name Merge Labs comes from the idea popular in Silicon Valley that humans will eventually merge with machine intelligence.)

Thiel’s VC firm has also backed Elon Musk’s Neuralink as well as CTRL-labs, the creator of a wristband that translates neural signals from arm and hand movements that was acquired by Facebook in 2019.