A NeuroAI startup founded by a Face ID pioneer secures $52 million in funding.

      One of the creators of Apple’s Face ID aims to direct AI towards a more challenging subject than a face: the brain. His startup, Hemispheric, has emerged from stealth mode with $52 million in funding. Located in Tel Aviv, the company describes itself as a NeuroAI firm, and its goal is straightforward: to make brain testing as commonplace as blood tests.

      The founders form an unconventional team. Hagai Lalazar, a computational neuroscientist, serves as the chief executive, while Gidi Littwin, who co-founded RealFace and contributed to the development of Face ID, is the chief technology officer. Littwin also later worked on the AI behind Apple’s Vision Pro.

      Their approach is known as Descartes. It includes 6 billion parameters and was trained using 250,000 hours of brain recordings from over 100,000 individuals, making it one of the largest datasets available in this area, according to Hemispheric.

      The test is non-invasive; a patient wears a dry EEG headset for 15 minutes and engages in tasks on a smartphone, as reported by WIRED. Descartes subsequently converts the brain's electrical signals into quantifiable data that a doctor can utilize.

      The focus is on conditions that are difficult to measure objectively. Hemispheric identifies depression, PTSD, mild brain injury, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s as some of these conditions, which are primarily assessed today through questionnaires and interviews.

      This approach stands in stark contrast to that of the most prominent player in the field. While Elon Musk’s Neuralink involves surgically implanting devices into the skull, Hemispheric—similar to China’s BrainCo—believes brain technology should be wearable and not require surgical installation.

      The funding round attracted a wide array of investors, including Hanaco Ventures, Protocol Labs, L Catterton, and Scott Belsky, the founder of Behance.

      This funding is part of a broader trend of financial influx into AI healthcare. Neko Health recently secured $700 million for body scanning, Chai Discovery obtained $400 million for AI-driven drug design, and an OpenAI researcher has left to start a $2 billion drug firm.

      Hemispheric has already presented Descartes to the FDA and aims to launch in the US and Europe. However, there is a common caution throughout the industry. Medical AI has faced challenges in hospital settings, and a model that aids in brain diagnoses is likely to encounter significant scrutiny. For now, the company has financial backing, a strong background, and ambitious objectives.