The co-founder of Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup, has raised more than $47 million for a project that will go against Neuralink. Max Hodak, who was once the President of Neuralink, also appears to be working with Neuralink’s talent for the “stealth startup” Science Corp.
An SEC filing from July, first reported on Futurism, revealed that 14 investors have offered to fund for Science Corp, which also involves the founder of the infamous crypto exchange MtGox, Jed McCaleb. New employees of the secretive startup are experts in CRISPR gene-editing technology, as per their LinkedIn profiles, hinting the Neuralink rival could focus heavily on bioengineering instead of neural hardware to merge human brains with computers.
When is the first device coming?
As of now, there are currently 10 public job postings for Science Corp, all seeking either biology or microfabrication. In July, Neuralink announced a $205 million Series C funding round that will push forward the production of its BMI devices.
“The funds from the round will be used to take Neuralink’s first product to market and accelerate the research and development of future products,” the firm stated in a blog post. “The sooner we do that, the sooner we can help people in need who could benefit from a Neuralink device.”
Impressive yet concerning
The investment came in just months after the firm released a video showing a Neuralink-equipped monkey playing ping pong on a computer using his mind.
“To control his paddle on the right side of the screen, Pager [the monkey] simply thinks about moving his hand up or down,” Neuralink’s video states. “As you can see, Pager is amazingly good at mind Pong. He’s focused and he’s playing entirely of his own volition. It’s not magic, the reason Neuralink works is because it’s recording and decoding electrical signals from the brain.”
While the Neuralink demonstration excited Musk’s fans, it received criticism from scientists and tech enthusiasts concerning privacy, data ownership, and biomedical ethics. Psychologist Susan Schneider told Observer that Elon Musk’s brain-reading implants an AI in a human brain, which is similar to suicide.
