AI Breakthrough for Brain Health

A former co-inventor of Apple's FaceID and Vision Pro technology, Gidi Littwin, has spent six years developing a frontier artificial intelligence model. His startup, Hemispheric, recently raised $52 million to advance this AI, which aims to decode electrical brain activity for cognitive disorder diagnosis.

Hemispheric has collected a quarter of a million hours of brain data from 100,000 paid volunteers across Asia, Tel Aviv, and Boston. This data trains deep learning models to analyze brain function from electrical signals, much like large language models analyze text.

The generalized model has shown accuracy in identifying conditions such as PTSD, schizophrenia, and depression. The team is preparing to submit their first product, focused on PTSD diagnosis, to the FDA for approval in early 2027, with a potential public rollout later that year.

Future plans include developing proprietary brain scanners to gather more detailed data than traditional EEGs. Hemispheric envisions this AI-assisted diagnostic tool becoming as common and affordable as a blood test, accessible in clinics and offices worldwide.