(Yicai Global) July 7 -- The Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, a non-profit organization founded by Chen Tianqiao, chairman of global investment firm Shanda Group, and his wife Chrissy Luo, plans to invest CNY1 billion (USD138 million) to support the use of artificial intelligence in brain science research.

The TCCI will set up an AI brain science laboratory, MindX, with startup capital of USD100 million, Gerwin Schalk, director of the Chen Frontier Lab for Applied Neurotechnology, said at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai yesterday.

The institute will also establish frontier labs for specific application scenarios, including ‘AI + sleep’ and ‘AI + anti-aging,’ with startup capital of CNY50 million (USD6.9 billion) each, he added.

MindX will recruit two specialist directors in neuroscience and AI to lead the development of AI through deep research on aspects of the human brain, including learning, memory, cognition, and emotion, and use AI to unravel the brain’s mysteries.

More investment for the labs will be forthcoming in the future, Yicai Global learned from the TCCI.

Founded in 2016, California-based TCCI funds brain science research projects, including mental health, sleep, and neurodegenerative diseases. In the same year, Chen announced a USD1 billion donation to the California Institute of Technology for brain science research.

The TCCI has also joined the generative AI push, announcing in March that it would recruit AI talent from around the world, especially algorithm engineers with experience in large language models and natural language processing.

NeuroXess, a brain-computer interface research and development firm founded by the TCCI, shared some initial findings at the WAIC, which ends tomorrow. The Shanghai-based startup has successfully implanted brain-computer interfaces in a two-year-old Labrador dog and a seven-year-old rhesus monkey.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione