OpenAI just invested $250M+ into Merge Labs.

This is fascinating on a number of levels. Not only because it increases the tension between Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

First, what is Merge Labs? And why would OpenAI, which itself needs to raise money constantly, investing a quarter of billion dollars in it?

A) Merge Labs is a "non-invasive" brain computer interface.

Let's define some things: "brain-computer interface" means software that somehow understands thoughts in order to interface with a computer to actually do things.

For instance, Neuralink, (which is invasive because it puts a chip in your brain), figures out which electric signals (thoughts) from the brain mean "move leg" and thus can help move an exoskeleton around the body so people who are paralyzed can move just with their thoughts.

"Non-invasive" means there's no chip in the brain.

So how do they do it?

B) HOW THEY DO IT:

Neurons already fire signals all day long. When they do, proteins inside those neurons change shape, position, or behavior. That’s normal brain function.

Merge Labs is using gene therapy to make brain activity easier to detect with ultrasound, without drilling into the skull.

Then, they want to use mini ultrasound machines to “listen” for those protein-level changes from outside the head.

If that works, you get a brain interface with no implanted electrodes.

So, non-invasive. But feels weirdly invasive.

C) WHY INVEST?

1) Eventually people with BCIs (brain computer interfaces) will be "enhanced humans".

It's like having Google constantly in your brain (or ChatGPT!) So all 8 billion people will eventually have one.

And some AI will have to be the leader in being the AI inside each brain. That's trillions of dollars in revenues.

BUT ALSO

2) Data. Think of the data you will be able to create new AI on. Not only will you have everyone's tweets (current model) but you will be able to learn on everyone's thoughts.

D) AI THAT IS BUILT ON EVERYONE'S THOUGHTS is exactly why OpenAI is investing.

Data is still king (or God).

SO THE QUESTION IS: IS THIS A UTOPIA (a perfect world) NEUTROPIA (an authoritarian world pushing Utopia on the people - think Bladerunner), or DYSTOPIA (total control, loss of individuality, enforced by technology - think 1984 or ...THX-1138 (credit to those who get reference). 

On the optimistic side, this is incredible.

Imagine restoring speech to someone who’s lost it. Giving mobility back to the paralyzed. Lowering the friction between human thought and creative output.

History is full of technologies that looked terrifying until they quietly made life better.

But the same interface that helps someone communicate could also nudge behavior. The same signal that lets you express intent could, in theory, be measured, modeled, or monetized.

I am an optimist.

I tend to think that all (or most) new technology has bad elements but greater positive elements (e.g. nuclear energy).

BUT

Optimism doesn’t mean blindness. It means staying awake while progress accelerates.

And with news like this, which is happening on a daily basis as opposed to a decade basis, one always has to wonder about the good, the bad, and the ugly.