Group 1 - OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman are backing a new company, Merge Labs, which aims to compete directly with Elon Musk's Neuralink in the brain-computer interface space [1][2] - Merge Labs is raising funds at a valuation of $850 million, with expectations that most of the funding will come from OpenAI's venture capital team [1][2] - Altman will co-found Merge Labs but will not be involved in day-to-day management, while Alex Blania, who leads the digital identity project World, will also be involved [1][2] Group 2 - The project is positioned to leverage recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to create more efficient and practical brain-machine interfaces [1][3] - Neuralink, founded by Musk in 2016, is currently leading the brain-machine interface sector and is conducting clinical trials for severely paralyzed patients [2] - Neuralink recently completed a $650 million funding round at a valuation of $9 billion, with investors including Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital [2] Group 3 - Altman has previously speculated that the concept of "merging" human and machine could become a reality as early as 2025, with recent technological advancements suggesting that high-bandwidth brain-machine interfaces may soon be achievable [2][3] - The emergence of companies like Merge Labs and existing players like Neuralink could potentially revolutionize human-technology interaction and may even lead humanity towards a "singularity" [3]