A 64-year-old named Mark has spent the last year learning how to control devices like his laptop and phone using a brain implant. And thanks to OpenAI, it’s gotten a whole lot easier to do.
The neurotech startup Synchron said Thursday it’s using OpenAI’s latest artificial intelligence models to build a new generative chat feature for patients with its brain-computer interface, or BCI.
A BCI system decodes brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Synchron’s model is designed to help people with paralysis communicate and maintain some independence by controlling smartphones, computers and other devices with their thoughts.
The new AI chat feature can take in inputs from text, audio and images and generate prompts patients can use while texting, Synchron said. By doing so, the company said it will be able to help people like Mark engage with the outside world more efficiently and naturally.
Mark, who asked CNBC not to use his last name for privacy reasons, was implanted with Synchron’s BCI in August 2023. He has the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which causes patients to gradually lose control of their muscles.
He said his diagnosis in January 2021 was like “a punch to the gut,” though the progression of the disease has been relatively slow in his case. Mark struggles to move his shoulders, arms and hands, but can still speak and walk short distances.
Eventually, he will lose those functionalities too, he said.
“There’s very little, unfortunately, we can do. It’s 100% fatal,” Mark told CNBC in an interview on Monday. “But I knew initially that I wanted to get involved in whatever I could to help future individuals with this disease.”
Mark has been testing Synchron’s new chat feature intermittently over the last two months. He said it’s been helping him save valuable time and energy while texting. Using a BCI requires focus and practice, so Mark said the AI helps take some of the pressure off when responding to messages.
“You get choices of how you might respond in several different ways,” he said. “So rather than me typing single words, I’m hitting one or two buttons or clicks, if you will, and I’ve got the majority of a sentence done.”
For instance, Mark can use the chat feature to schedule an appointment with his doctor and keep up with his daughters. He spent more than two decades in the floral industry and said he recently used the tool to talk about gardening with a Synchron employee. It’s a topic the two have bonded over.
Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley said the company is taking a “pragmatic view” in selecting the models that best support its patients’ needs. Right now, that role belongs to OpenAI, but Oxley said the companies are not in an exclusive partnership. Synchron does not share any brain data with OpenAI, he added.
Oxley said Synchron is still working to roll out the new chat feature, but Mark has helped pioneer it.
“For him, it’s a preservation of autonomy,” Oxley told CNBC in an interview. “The most important function of BCI is to preserve his ability to make choices.”
‘Something bigger than yourself’
BCIs have been studied in academic settings for decades, but the commercial industry is still relatively new. Synchron, founded in 2012, is one of several companies like Paradromics, Precision Neuroscience and Elon Musk’s Neuralink that have been working to build and commercialize BCI systems in recent years.
Neuralink is the most well-known company of the bunch thanks to the high profile of Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. But Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire keeping an eye on the field. In December 2022, Synchron announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Synchron’s BCI is a stent-like device inserted through a patient’s jugular vein. It’s delivered to the blood vessel that rests on the surface of the brain’s motor cortex. Since Synchron’s approach doesn’t require open brain surgery, its system is less invasive than those designed by competitors like Neuralink and Paradromics.
As of July, no BCI company has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commercialize its technology.
In Synchron’s case, the company has implanted its BCI in six patients in the U.S. and four patients in Australia as part of clinical studies. Mark was patient No. 10. Oxley said Synchron is currently gearing up for a larger-scale trial with more patients.
Mark learned about Synchron from one of his doctors as he neared the end of a drug study he enrolled in during August 2021. Determining whether he wanted to get a BCI was a big decision, but he became convinced that it would help him retain some independence and ensure he could continue to communicate with loved ones.
“That was the exciting thing for me — the possibility of being able to still have independence to a degree,” he said. “I mean, something as simple as changing the channel on the TV without having to call somebody to work the remote for you.”
He meets with Synchron for two hours, twice a week to practice different skills and functions with the BCI. It takes some time to get everything set up and connected, so Mark said he primarily uses the system during these sessions. He occasionally practices during the weekend, too.
Mark said he doesn’t use Synchron’s new chat feature every time he uses the BCI. He’s still learning how to work with the prompts but said he is impressed by how often they reflect what he would normally say in a conversation. They even include the occasional curse word, he joked.
Mark has had to stop working because of his disease, and he said mastering the BCI has helped give him something to strive for.
“It’s an opportunity to really be part of something bigger than yourself,” he said.