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Synchron, a brain-computer interface (BCI) company rivalling Elon Musk’s Neuralink, has incorporated OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its software.

The goal of this AI integration is to make it simpler for people with paralysis to manage their digital devices.

Synchron has already experimented with a unique approach to implanting its BCI without the need for open brain surgery, and now the company has integrated ChatGPT into its software, something it says is a world first for a BCI company.

Blending AI and brain implants is viewed as a way to speed up communication for people like Mark, one of 10 people in the world who’ve been implanted with Synchron’s BCI as part of clinical trials. Mark was diagnosed with ALS in 2021 and says the use of his hands is “almost gone at this point”.

CNET spoke to Synchron’s founding CEO, Tom Oxley, and Mark to learn about their experience and the future of AI and brain implants.

Typing messages with a BCI is still slow, so adding AI aims to speed things up by considering the context of the conversation and predicting responses, offering a menu of possible options.

Now, instead of typing out each word, answers can be filled in with a single “click.”

There’s a refresh button in case none of the AI answers are right, Mark has noticed the AI getting better at providing answers that are more in line with things he might say.

“Every once in a while it’ll drop an f-bomb, which I tend to do occasionally,” he says with a laugh.

Image: Synchron

Oxley said his company was experimenting with different AI models for about a year, but the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o in May hit the nail on the head.

The “o” in ChatGPT-4o stands for “omni,” representative of the fact that this latest version is capable of taking in text, audio and visual inputs all at once to inform its outputs. Oxley envisions the future of BCIs as perhaps similar: having large language models like ChatGPT take in relevant context in the form of text, audio and visuals to provide relevant prompts that users can select with their BCI.

Synchron’s implant called a stentrode is placed in a blood vessel near the brain’s motor cortex, which controls movement. To click or make a selection with the Synchron BCI, users think about moving, and the BCI interprets those thoughts and wirelessly sends the command to the user’s device.

Synchron’s BCI is expected to cost between $50,000 and $100,000 (R915,000 and R1,830,000) – similar to other implanted medical devices like pacemakers or cochlear implants.

Though the process may take several years, Synchron’s BCI is already proving to make a lasting impact.

[source:cnet]