Back in 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman came for our eyeballs (well, a detailed scan of them) in exchange for a chunk of his cryptocurrency, Worldcoin. At the time, many people were pretty repulsed by the idea, but it hasn’t stopped hundreds of millions of people using OpenAI’s signature product, ChatGPT, in the years since. Now, Altman is attempting to build on that popularity with a new proposal: this time, he wants our brains.

This week (January 15) Altman’s new brain tech startup, Merge Labs, came out of “stealth mode” – scary! – with the announcement that it’s raised $252 million, equal to about £188 million, in funding. The largest single investment reportedly came from OpenAI itself, although the exact amount hasn’t been revealed.

Merge Labs describes itself as a “research lab” (then again, so did OpenAI, before evolving into a for-profit company worth around $500 billion) that’s dedicated to “bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximise human ability”. What does that actually mean? Well, for some people it means the realisation of a timeless sci-fi dream, where humans are transformed via technology into hyper-intelligent cyborgs. For others, it will sound like pure hell. Either way, there’s likely to be some very interesting (and/or scary) revelations along the way.

We’ve tried to answer the most pressing questions below.

IS MERGE LABS SUPPOSED TO SOUND LIKE A COMPANY THAT WILL USHER IN A DYSTOPIAN FUTURE?

It’s a bit on the nose, isn’t it? Then again, at least it’s honest. The ultimate goals of Merge AI are pretty much what it says on the tin: to develop brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that would could “integrate with advanced AI” to enhance our abilities and augment our experience of the world.

WHAT IS A BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE, EXACTLY?

There isn’t a single, simple answer to that question. Elon Musk’s Neuralink, for example, has already debuted BCIs in the form of computer chips you actually implant in your head. Testimonials from the first two users, both of whom had been paralysed by spinal cord injuries, appear positive.

Merge Labs technology would work differently, though, using “fundamentally new approaches” according to a recent blog post. In short, this would involve interacting with the neurons in our brain in less invasive ways, such as transmitting and receiving information via ultrasound. The company adds: “Recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, hardware, neuroscience, and computing made by our team and others convince us that this is possible.”

WHY THOUGH? WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

In a world where many people are increasingly trying to divest from tech, log off, and touch grass, it’s worth remembering that many others are still highly optimistic about how technology might transform the human experience in years to come. In theory, BCIs could be a big part of this transformation, from the restoration of lost abilities – like paralysed limbs – to the augmentation of human intelligence and creativity.

If that doesn’t already sound like the plot to a sci-fi movie, there’s another theory that’s been circulating in Silicon Valley for many years: merging with AI might be the only way to keep up, if it does finally ‘take off’ and gain consciousness. In other words, tethering AI to our human brains might be the only way to make sure that it takes us along for the ride. Or, as Altman says: “My guess is that we can either be the biological bootloader for digital intelligence and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like.”

My guess is that we can either be the biological bootloader for digital intelligence and then fade into an evolutionary tree branch, or we can figure out what a successful merge looks like – Sam Altman, 2017

Sam Altman has been interested in the ideas since at least 2017, when he penned a personal blog post titled “The Merge”. At the time, he wrote: “I believe the merge has already started, and we are a few years in. Our phones control us and tell us what to do when; social media feeds determine how we feel; search engines decide what we think.” Due to the feedback loops involved in developing frontier technologies like AI, he adds: “This probably cannot be stopped.” As such, his new company could be seen as a way to make sure it happens on his own terms (whether they’re the same as our terms is a different story).

IS IT ALL A BIG MONEY-MAKING SCHEME?

Look... I don’t want an email from the legal team, so I can’t really speculate on the ethics of OpenAI, a company co-founded and run by Sam Altman, investing a large chunk of the $252 million raised by Merge Labs, another company co-founded and run by Sam Altman. I also have nothing to say about any other deals or promises made between OpenAI and companies like Helion Energy (chaired by Altman) or Oklo (Altman stepped down as chairman in 2025). You’ll have to make up your own mind.

MERGE WILL PROBABLY ANNOY ELON MUSK

If there’s one silver lining to be found for sceptics of Altman and his attempts to worm inside our skulls, it’s that Elon Musk is probably very annoyed. Despite still leading the neurotechnology market with Neuralink (which has so far raised around $1.3 billion) Musk will likely see the news as a further provocation in a longstanding rivalry with Altman, which currently sees them locked in an explosive court battle.