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Author @DataChaz reported on 2026-08-07 that Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI to join…

2026-08-07 · 16:45 UTC ·@DataChaz ·1 min read

Brief

Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI to join Conduit, which claims a non‑invasive brain‑decoding model that reads through the skull with 45% accuracy after collecting 10,000 hours of data in an SF basement run on batteries. The team argues scaling (vs. Whisper's 680,000 hours) will rapidly improve performance and predicts headbands by 2027 and AI-as-limb by 2035.

Why it matters

Author @DataChaz reported on 2026-08-07 that Naomi Bashkansky left OpenAI to join Conduit with the mission of training models to non‑invasively read human minds.

Key details

  • Conduit claims its system can read a stranger's mind through the skull at 45% accuracy, has collected 10,000 hours of brain data in an SF basement, and runs on batteries because ordinary wall power reportedly drowns out human thoughts (no implants or surgery).
  • The post compares this effort to Whisper (which used 680,000 hours), quotes Bashkansky calling it the "GPT‑2 era of mind reading," and predicts developer headbands by 2027 and AI feeling like a limb by 2035.
Source evidence

[JUST IN] A top researcher just left OpenAI to build telepathy.

@NaomiBashkansky walked out of the hottest company on earth to join Conduit.

The mission: train models to non-invasively read the human mind.

No implants. No surgery.

Right now, their AI can read a stranger's mind through their skull with 45% accuracy.

To get that signal, they are collecting data in an SF basement, cutting the building's wall power and running on batteries because ordinary electricity drowns out human thoughts.

They’ve collected 10,000 hours of brain data.

Whisper needed 680,000 to master speech. Once this scales, the decoding won't stop at 45%.

Bashkansky says this is the "GPT-2 era of mind reading"

By 2027, devs will wear thought-streaming headbands.

By 2035, AI stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a limb.

For 300,000 years, your thoughts were yours alone.

Someone is building the tech to change that, right now.