The Cyborgs Commeth - EP 69 Connor Glass

**Connor Glass** (0:00)
When somebody says controlling something with their thoughts, that's a very like loose and simplified way of how these things actually work. But yeah, essentially we do the same thing that Neuralink does without the need for brain surgery. So our implant goes under the skin in your limb or an amputation stump for an amputee, for example. Whereas Neuralink's implants go into the actual cortex itself are injected down into the brain surgery, which has issues that come along with it. I mean, anytime you implant something into the body, you have to be careful when there's a risk to reward ratio that you have to meet.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:48)
Welcome to the Core Memory Podcast. This is Ashlee Vance, and today, we're joined by Connor Glass. Hello, Connor.

**Connor Glass** (0:58)
Glad to be here. Hey, thanks for having us.

**Ashlee Vance** (0:59)
We know each other. We've met a couple times. We filmed in Texas with you guys for an episode that will be coming shortly on our YouTube channel, which you should like and subscribe.
And you're the CEO and founder or co-founder? Founder.

**Connor Glass** (1:16)
Founder.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:17)
Founder of Phantom Neuro, which we're going to talk a lot about today. But yeah, we got to know each other and you're a cool cat.
To set the scene for people a little bit, I want to talk about, this will sound big and heady, but this is where we're going to go. The future of humans, the merger of humans and machines and where humanity is heading. Yeah. And then along the way, we'll fill in some details on that.

**Connor Glass** (1:43)
Yeah, excited.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:44)
I assume you might, because you are based in Austin, that you're in town for, this is going to date the podcast, but for JPM, which is like this big biotech extravaganza.

**Connor Glass** (1:55)
Yeah, that's right.

**Ashlee Vance** (1:56)
Yeah.

**Connor Glass** (1:57)
It's a conference that everybody dreads going to, but everybody goes to. It's just a massive sea of people. It's crazy.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:04)
I think I've only been once because I try to avoid, I was a tech trade reporter for a long time, so I went to too many conferences and now I do my very best to avoid them. But JPM is hilarious, especially for what I cover. I have had so many, the podcast runneth over this week and it's just like the amount of meeting and dinner and party.

**Connor Glass** (2:26)
That's exactly what it is. It's just back to back to back to back, and it's almost like speed dating during these things. It's crazy. You can't even find a step to sit on, to have a conversation. You're like crammed inside these hotels.

**Ashlee Vance** (2:37)
So somehow this financial firm just became a biotech.

**Connor Glass** (2:45)
When you know there's multiple conferences going on, at the same time, they piggyback off of each other and compete.
It's very interesting. I think like JPM started and then these other ones like hitched their wagon to it, as a competitive thing to start having their own showcases and things, and it just grew into this behemoth, monster.

**Ashlee Vance** (3:05)
It's quite funny.
All right, well, you've led... There's all kinds of places we could start. I think we should give people a general idea of what Phantom Neuro does, but you've led a very interesting life. And I really wanted you to come on the show because we have these great chats about sort of sci-fi level tech. But I'll describe for a second, and then you tell us what's actually happening. When we went to Austin, I mean, we got to go to your office and we got to hang out with a dude named Alex. And so you guys are making, well, you take other people's prosthetics, like we were doing a lot with a robotic hand, and then you have a device which goes under the skin and it kind of connects. People may have seen like a Neuralink patient controlling a mouse cursor on the screen with their thought alone, and these are people who are controlling a prosthetic with their thoughts.

**Connor Glass** (4:04)
Essentially, yes. So when somebody says controlling something with their thoughts, that's a very like loose and simplified way of how these things actually work. But yeah, essentially we do the same thing that Neuralink does without the need for brain surgery. So our implant goes under the skin in your limb or an amputation stump for an amputee, for example. Whereas Neuralink's implants go into the actual cortex itself or are injected down into the brain.

**Ashlee Vance** (4:30)