OpenAI Invests in Startup That Uses Brain Implants to Detect Cancer
OpenAI’s investment arm and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund are investing in Coherence Neuro, a startup developing a brain implant designed to detect and treat cancer.
The investments are part of a $45 million seed funding round for Coherence. They also show how much big technology companies are becoming interested in brain data. Ben Woodington, Coherence’s CEO and cofounder, says big AI research labs and companies making devices that read brain signals, known as brain-computer interfaces, are increasingly working toward similar goals.
“The idea of collecting data to train better models and use it to improve treatments is going to be very important,” he says. “The AI companies seem to agree that this new source of data will be valuable.”
Woodington says AI is a “perfect use case” for brain-computer interfaces. These devices produce huge amounts of data that people cannot study on their own. AI models can help analyze raw brain signals and connect them to actions, such as moving a computer cursor or creating computer-generated speech.
In January, OpenAI announced that it was directly investing in Merge Labs, a new brain-computer interface company co-founded by its billionaire CEO, Sam Altman. Merge Labs emerged from secrecy with $252 million in initial funding. It plans to develop ultrasound technology that can read information from the brain. At the time, OpenAI said it was investing in Merge Labs because it believed brain-computer interfaces “will create a natural, human-centered way for anyone to seamlessly interact with AI.” The name Merge Labs refers to a popular idea in Silicon Valley: that humans will eventually combine with machine intelligence.
Thiel’s investment firm has also invested in Elon Musk’s Neuralink and CTRL-labs. CTRL-labs created a wristband that reads nerve signals linked to arm and hand movements. Facebook bought the company in 2019.
Instead of focusing on helping people with paralysis regain lost abilities, Coherence, which is based in San Francisco, is developing AI models to read faint electrical signals linked to brain tumors. The company says it already knows how to detect these signals in animals and use them to tell whether cancer is growing, shrinking, or returning. Its team is now working to apply these findings to research involving people and, eventually, clinical trials.
This summer, Coherence briefly tested its implant’s ability to record brain signals in three people who were already having surgery to remove brain tumors at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. The implant remained in place for about 30 minutes before it was removed. This provided an early check of its safety. Coherence is now testing both the recording and electrical stimulation features of the device in seven more patients.
The implant is also designed to send mild electrical signals that may stop tumors from growing. The goal is for the device to learn over time to recognize signals linked to cancer and deliver treatment in real time. Coherence plans to use its new funding to begin a clinical trial in which the device will be implanted in patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, for a long period. The company also wants to develop implants to treat cancers in other parts of the body.
“Coherence's approach to developing a cancer treatment that can improve as it learns from data is very innovative,” says Ian Hathaway, a partner at the OpenAI Startup Fund, in a statement. “We are proud to support them in this exciting mission.”
Woodington says OpenAI will not be able to access Coherence’s data. “There's nothing in the contracts or arrangements that would mean that we would share, or they would have access to, any brain data or other health data that we're generating,” he says.
This appears to be different from OpenAI’s relationship with Merge Labs. In its January announcement, OpenAI said it would “collaborate with Merge Labs on scientific foundation models and other frontier tools to accelerate progress.”