Gabe Newell’s new company, Starfish Neuroscience, is working to develop a brain chip. Gabe Newell is the CEO of Valve, a company focusing on video games. Newell is also Valve’s co-founder. The Starfish Neuroscience brain chip may be introduced by the latter part of 2025. The brain chip set to arrive toward the end of 2025 will not be an implant.
One purpose of the chip will be to provide therapy via brain stimulation. Also, the chip will be able to record the activity of the brain. Starfish Neuroscience focuses on finding innovative ways to interact with the brain. In general, Starfish Neuroscience hopes to address conditions such as depression and Parkinson’s disease.
Gabe Newell’s Brain Chip Plan
According to The Verge, Gabe Newell is “Valve co-founder and CEO.” Valve is a video game company. The company has put out games such as DOTA 2, Half-Life, and Counter-Strike. The Verge reports that another Valve product is Steam, a “preeminent PC game distribution platform.” Newell has been generating ideas about connections between the brain and the computer. He has explored some of these ideas at Valve.
The Verge states that Newell “quietly incorporated a new brain-computer interface startup” in 2019. This company is called Starfish Neuroscience. Creating Starfish Neuroscience builds on the brain-computer work Valve has been doing. The Verge reports Starfish “plans to produce its very first brain chip later this year.” One use for which the chip is being designed is recording the brain’s activity. Another is therapeutic brain stimulation. Nate Cermak of Starfish states: “We anticipate our first chips arriving in late 2025.” Cermak is a neuroengineer at Starfish Neuroscience.
About Starfish Neuroscience
Making lives better is the Starfish Neuroscience company’s stated aim. According to its website, Starfish will “enable new ways to interact with the brain.” The company has an expansive philosophy of innovative research. The website states that Starfish wishes to “cast a wide, exploratory net.” Parkinson’s disease and depression are two conditions Starfish is working to design products to alleviate.
One goal for the products they develop is for them to be minimally invasive. The products are designed, according to the website, for “interfacing with the brain and body.” The company runs on a non-hierarchical work structure. The website states that this provides “the freedom, autonomy, and time to explore new ideas.”
Brain Chip Project Details and Context
The Verge states the chip predicted to be released will not be “a complete implant.” Starfish has stated, though, that it does have creating an implant as an aim. According to The Verge, “the goal… is a smaller and less invasive implant.” Starfish hopes to produce an implant that can simultaneously reach more than one brain section. Nate Cermak states that this capability could facilitate the treatment of some neurological disorders. According to Cermak, some disorders exist “in which… interactions between brain regions may be misregulated.”
The upcoming Starfish Neuroscience brain chip can be compared to the N1 created by Neuralink. According to Built In, “Neuralink is a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk.” N1 is an implant that runs on a battery. The battery is charged wirelessly when needed. The Verge reports that the implant is “around 23mm wide and 8mm thick.” These measurements take into account the entirety of the implant, including its chip.
As the Starfish chip nears the point of introduction, the company is looking for partnerships. Starfish currently seeks “collaborators for whom this technology would pair well with their existing work.” Wireless communication is one area Starfish suggests may have possible applications for the brain chip. Starfish Neuroscience surmises that “those designing custom implanted neural interfaces” may also be interested. In addition, Starfish is open to correspondence about general questions.
