Neural Interface Company by Valve Founder to Launch First Brain Chip This Year

Whoa, so Gabe Newell’s up to something wild again. You know him, right? The Valve dude. Anyway, his new gig, Starfish Neuroscience, is cooking up something that sounds straight out of sci-fi. They’re making this brain-chip thingy with imec, and it’s not your average hunk of silicone. Nope, this baby’s supposed to be super minimalist—like, you won’t even know it’s chilling in your head. Wild, right?

So, there’s this plan for it to work wire-free and battery-free. I mean, how do you even power this thing? Magic, maybe? It’s supposed to hit multiple brain zones all at once, which is kinda crucial for tackling those gnarly neurological issues. Gabe’s been dreaming about this ‘read and write’ brain jazz for a while now. Guess he’s finally plugging his dreams right into your skull or something.

The big issue they’re tackling? Making these implants not-so-clunky. From what I gather, most of them right now are about as practical as strapping an old VCR to your head. Comparatively, Gabe’s vision? Teeny tiny implants. Can’t help but wonder, how do you even get something like that into your noggin without, like, major surgery?

The actual chip is, uh…microscopic. We’re talking 2 by 4mm. Who wakes up thinking, “Hey, I wanna shrink a brain chip to micro-sized today?” Someone at Starfish did, clearly. Specs-wise, it’s all techy numbers and stuff—like, 32 electrode sites, 16 channels…okay, I’ll stop. Just imagine a micro wizard in your head doing its thing with all those figures.

And yeah, despite sounding all futuristic and shiny, they’re still on the hunt for folks to team up with. Imagine being an early-stage buddy in this mad science project. They’re eyeballing a 2025 release. Almost like a brainiacs’ dream waiting to spiral into reality—or maybe it’s just a techy nightmare, who knows?

Gabe dropped a hot one in 2023—said something about us being closer to ‘The Matrix’ than you’d think. Wait, what? Suddenly feels like we’re teetering on the edge of a cyber-brain age. And he even mentioned how your brain’s got these slick interfaces for some feels, but it’s a total mess for others. Like, making someone feel ‘cold’ is apparently tougher than playing around with your motor cortex. Go figure.

Then there’s Mike Ambinder, Valve’s own brain buff who used to dive deep with this BCI stuff for gaming. He hinted that soon we might even tap into how players react to games. Just imagine a game reading your brain. Epic or eerie? Not really sure, but it’s happening.

And hey, a shoutout to Brad ‘SadlyItsBradley’ Lynch for flagging this craziness. Here’s to the wild world of brainy-tech futures, huh?