India, Oct. 26 -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly planning to support a brain implant company, Merge Labs, in an attempt to rival Elon Musk's Neuralink, according to media reports.

The ChatGPT creator is reportedly enlisting the help of Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity (formerly known as Worldcoin), the company behind Altman's iris-scanning digital ID initiative.

With Shapiro's involvement, the brain implant venture appears to be taking a distinct route from Neuralink.

In a recent video, Shapiro discussed the potential of harnessing sound waves and magnetic fields to build a brain-computer interface.

Instead of implanting electrodes in brain tissue, he said it's "easier to introduce genes into cells" so that they can respond...