Musk and Altman: The Billionaires' Race to Implant Chips in Human Brains

The Billionaires' Race to Implant Chips in Human Brains

Musk and Altman: The Billionaires' Race to Implant Chips in Human Brains

Elon Musk and Sam Altman have long shared a passion for AI leadership, but this partnership, born out of ambitious dreams, has over time turned into a public conflict on more than one front. After co-founding OpenAI nearly a decade ago, Musk abruptly withdrew following disagreements over control of the company, turning the close alliance into a fierce rivalry.

A New Race

Today, this rivalry is extending to a new, bolder, and more controversial arena: the race to connect human brains to artificial intelligence. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and xAI, and Altman, the leader of OpenAI, are each pursuing their own paths to develop and implant brain-computer interface (BCI) chips in humans, a technology some see as a gateway to a revolutionary future, while others see it as a new battleground for the billionaires of the century.

The idea is to enable people to directly control computers by reading electrical signals emitted by the brain, according to a report in the Daily Mail. Their companies are betting that this technology will one day enable the integration of the human mind with artificial intelligence, a goal both Musk and Altman insist upon. Musk's company, Neuralink, is leading the way, having already begun trials with volunteers in the United States and received approval for the first study of its kind in Britain.

Merge Labs

Altman, on the other hand, is backing a competing startup called Merge Labs, which seeks to make brain-computer interfaces faster and more efficient using artificial intelligence, according to the Financial Times. Technically, brain-computer interfaces work by translating patterns of electrical activity in the brain into digital commands that computers can understand, potentially allowing people with disabilities to regain their independence using computers or prosthetic limbs.

These possibilities have also attracted the interest of governments, including the British Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA), which is exploring ways to exploit them. Neuralink relies on a coin-sized chip containing 1,000 electrodes distributed across 128 microscopic threads thinner than a human hair. These electrodes are implanted in the brain by a robotic surgeon developed by the company. This chip, called the N1, records a massive amount of brain activity data, which is analyzed using artificial intelligence.

The company's first human trial involved Noland Arbaugh, paralyzed from the neck down, who regained the ability to control a computer, type texts, play chess, and even play complex video games. The chips were later implanted in six more volunteers, and the company is preparing to expand the trials to Europe. Musk believes that merging with computers is necessary to avoid the risks of super-intelligence, while Altman wrote years ago in his blog post titled "The Merge" that humans and machines would likely merge between 2025 and 2075, considering it the best-case scenario for a future of shared human-machine interaction.

The rivalry between the two tech giants began in 2015 when they launched OpenAI together, with Musk as its largest funder. However, disagreements over the company's direction quickly led to the collapse of the partnership. After Musk withdrew from the board of directors in 2018, the rivalry intensified, culminating in Musk filing a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of "betraying its principles" and transforming it into a for-profit company.