We are pursuing this long-term goal by developing broadband brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that interact with the brain at high bandwidth, integrate with advanced AI, and are ultimately safe and accessible enough for anyone to use. We believe sufficiently advanced BCIs can improve many lives. Initially, they will allow us to restore lost abilities and reestablish healthy brain function in people suffering from injury or disease. Longer-term, they will help us understand human consciousness and cognition, increase our capacity to connect with each other, and give us new ways to harness the growing capabilities of AI.

We are inspired by, and have contributed to, pioneering BCI efforts using both implanted technologies and noninvasive techniques. However, we believe for BCI to reach its full potential we need a radically new approach that can greatly increase bandwidth while providing a less invasive form factor that can ultimately benefit the broadest set of users. Recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, electronics, computational neuroscience and AI give us strong conviction that building such next-generation broadband BCIs is possible. Together, these technologies will interface with neurons at the molecular level and transmit and receive information in a minimally invasive form factor without ever needing to implant devices into brain tissue.

The ambition of this project demands that we think in decades rather than years, tackle very hard problems across disciplines, and proactively ensure that the resulting technology is safe, private, accessible and beneficial to its users. We enthusiastically embrace these challenges because we believe the benefits to humanity will massively outweigh the difficulties of getting there. En route, our we expect our work to work will advance the frontiers of human technology and knowledge.

Merge Labs is not a conventional company. We’re starting out as a research lab that will be home to the smartest, most motivated people building the future of BCI. To achieve our goals, we will invent and integrate innovations across the fields of neuroscience, medicine, molecular engineering, hard tech, and AI. Along the way, we will share our progress and many of our tools with the world, enabling cross-disciplinary science and discovery. We will also collaborate on strategies to ensure agency, privacy, security and broad availability. Ultimately, we will turn our technology into products that serve humanity.

Our founding team reflects the multidisciplinary nature of our vision. We are bioengineers, neuroscientists, physicists, computer scientists and entrepreneurs who have built hyper-ambitious technologies for humanity at Caltech, OpenAI, Forest Neurotech, Tools for Humanity and World. We have equally ambitious backers committed to our long-term goal. We share the dream of broadband BCI that enhances human agency and are excited to do the work to bring it into existence.

If your idea of fun is working with scientists, engineers, and operators at the top of their field to solve impossibly hard problems in service of a world-changing goal, we’d love to meet you.