OpenAI und Altman werden in ein Brain-Computer-Interface-Unternehmen investieren und direkt mit Musks Neuralink konkurrieren.

Neuralink, a company that may represent the future of human-machine symbiosis, may be facing a formidable challenger.

According to the Financial Times, OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman are preparing to invest in a startup called Merge Labs. The company's goal is the same as Elon Musk's Neuralink, which is to connect the human brain with computers.

Undoubtedly, this move will intensify the competition between these two billionaire entrepreneurs.

The Financial Times said it was unable to obtain a comment from OpenAI on this incident, while Musk's comment was: 🙄

Specifically, the media obtained information from three people familiar with the matter, saying that Merge Labs is currently raising new funds at a valuation of $850 million, and it is expected that most of the new funds will come from OpenAI's venture capital team. Two people familiar with the matter said that Altman strongly encourages this investment and will help launch the project together with Alex Blania. Alex Blania is currently in charge of an eye-scanning digital ID project called World, which has also received Altman's support. They added that Altman will also become a co-founder of the company but will not be involved in the daily work of the new project.

In fact, there are already many young startups in the field of brain-computer interfaces in Silicon Valley.

In 2017, Altman wrote a long blog post on this topic, speculating that this moment may come as early as 2025.

Excerpt from the blog, https://blog.samaltman.com/the-merge

More importantly, unless we destroy ourselves first, superhuman-level AI will eventually emerge, genetic enhancement will eventually emerge, and brain-computer interfaces will eventually emerge. Thinking that we can never create something smarter than ourselves is a failure of human imagination and arrogance.

……

The merger can take many forms: we can insert electrodes into the brain, or we can all become very close friends with chatbots. But I think the merger may be our best option. If two different species want the same thing, and only one can get it — in this case, to become the dominant species on Earth and beyond — they will conflict. We should all hope to have a team where all members care about the well-being of all others.

This year, he said in another blog post that with recent technological advancements, we may soon have "high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces."

The Financial Times revealed that Merge Labs plans to raise $250 million from OpenAI and other investors, but the negotiations are still in the early stages. Altman will not invest personally.

The newly established joint venture will directly compete with Neuralink, founded by Musk in 2016. The latter is a leader in the field of brain-computer interfaces, but there are also some startups such as Precision Neuroscience and Synchron competing to catch up.

Earlier this year, Neuralink received $650 million in financing at a valuation of $9 billion. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, and Vy Capital. Altman had previously invested in Neuralink.

Brain implants are not a new technology and have a history of several decades. However, in recent years, with the leapfrog development of AI and electronic components for collecting brain signals, their practical applications have become feasible.

Last month, Neuralink announced that it had successfully completed the 8th and 9th brain-computer interface surgeries, attracting wide attention. Even earlier, they had also shared some successful cases, including enabling patients with high-level paraplegia to successfully control computers and mobile phones.

In fact, in addition to this brain-computer interface company, Altman is also actively deploying other cutting-edge projects. In addition to co-founding World, he has also invested in the nuclear fission group Oklo and the nuclear fusion project Helion.

Musk vs. Altman

In addition to competing with Elon Musk's Neuralink for the future of brain-computer interfaces, Sam Altman has also had a battle with Musk on X regarding AI in recent days.

The incident started when Musk accused Apple of giving preferential treatment to OpenAI on its App Store on X, which constitutes a monopoly. Musk also threatened to take legal action. (But according to the background information added by netizens, Musk's statement does not seem to conform to the facts.)

Altman immediately retweeted and commented that Musk was using X to profit for himself and his company and was harming his competitors and those he disliked.

Next, the war of words escalated. Musk directly called Altman a liar and used the page views as evidence to show that X did not deliberately restrict the traffic of its opponents. Altman retorted and asked Musk to sign an affidavit to prove his innocence.

After that, Musk posted and retweeted more tweets to support his statement.

In addition, some netizens found that although Altman accused Musk of restricting opponents on X, in fact, his own ChatGPT is also doing the same: when users visit the website links of OpenAI's competitors given in the AI's answers, ChatGPT will pop up a warning saying that these links may not be safe, but it will not pop up such a warning for other similar links.

Finally, you read it right. Musk specifically went to ChatGPT to ask a question: "Who is more trustworthy, me or Sam?" And since he has shared the screenshot, the answer must have satisfied him very much.

What are your thoughts on OpenAI's potential investment in Merge Labs and this farcical quarrel?

Reference Links

https://www.ft.com/content/04484164-724e-4fc2-92a2-e2c13ea639bd

This article is from the WeChat official account "Almost Human" (ID: almosthuman2014), author: Panda. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.