HUMANE MACHINES – An Interview with Inclusive Brains Founders

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) models can now understand and reproduce human language like never before. But this is not enough for machines to truly get what makes each of us unique and to achieve optimal human-machine interactions. The solution, according to the founders of Marseille-based startup Inclusive Brains is to combine multimodal generative AI with neuroscience. Their goal is for all connected devices to sense and to adapt in real time to the various physiological and psychological states their users experience throughout the day. This way, machines can assist us as best as possible, while looking after our physical and mental health. Inclusive Brains also wants to make computers, phones, vehicles, workstations and digital environments fully accessible. And to ensure that everybody can benefit from their innovation, including those who lost the ability to move and to speak, they have developed hardware agnostic cognitive AI that enables connected devices and digital environments to be mind-controlled.

Meet Prof. Olivier Oullier and Paul Barbaste, the founders of Inclusive Brains, a startup “made in Région Sud” that many experts consider very likely to become the European Neuralink.

Région Sud President Dr. Renaud Muselier welcomes the Inclusive Brains founders together with Nathalie and Denis Labrégère after their Olympic Torch Relay (Marseille, France)[OO1]

During his PhD, Olivier shared his time between the South of France and the University of Cincinnati. He then stayed in the United States as a researcher in functional brain imaging. He first returned to Provence to become a Full Professor of Behavioral and Brains Sciences at Aix-Marseille University, while also heading the French Prime Minister’s ‘Neuroscience and Public Policy’ program. Olivier left Région Provence-Alps-French Riviera a second time to become a member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, where he led the Global Strategy in Health and Healthcare Industries. He crossed the ocean once more to serve as President of EMOTIV, the California-based world leader in commercial brain-sensing technologies. When he last returned to Marseille, it was to found Inclusive Brains with Paul Barbaste and to become the founding chair of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence by Biotech Dental.

Paul Barbaste graduated from Sciences-Po, HEC and École Polytechnique. After working as the assistant to a French Parliament Member, in charge of tech policy and AI matters. He then worked as a data scientist and cybersecurity analyst while fine-tuning his AI skills. Paul created Gotham, a dark web search engine for data leak detections, and devised Project Richelieu, a cyber-security penetration testing platform that referenced the most common French passwords. He also developed his own Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), which enabled him to graduate from the master's program at HEC and École Polytechnique, where he is now in charge of the “Neuroscience & Neurotechnologies” track.

– What do Barack Obama, Led Zeppelin, and Rodrigo Hübner Mendes have to do with the birth of Inclusive Brains?

Olivier: In 2012, while I was still a full-time academic, I had the opportunity to have a meeting at the White House to learn more about applied behavioral sciences in political campaigns. But we were asked to leave earlier than expected because Led Zeppelin was receiving an award from President Obama that same afternoon! As I was leaving, I thought I had just experienced the craziest day of my professional life. Little did I know that the best was yet to come. That very evening, I met Rodrigo Hübner Mendes, and my personal and professional lives changed forever. Rodrigo became a quadriplegic after being shot in the spine as someone tried to steal his car in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During our first conversation, we bonded over soccer and Formula 1, as one would expect between a Frenchman and a Brazilian. That day, as we argued over who, between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, was the best driver, none of us had the slightest idea of how prophetic our conversation about F1 would be.

Paul: A few years after Rodrigo and Olivier became friends, neurotech from EMOTIV, the company Olivier was the President of, allowed Rodrigo to mind-control a real Formula 1 race car on a real track! As if this was not crazy enough, a few months later, the two of them challenged none other than F1 legend Lewis Hamilton! It was after seeing the video of them with Lewis that I contacted Olivier, who was still living in the United States at that time. Without Rodrigo's F1 feat, we would most certainly have never met, and there would have been no Inclusive Brains. Obviously, Olivier and I share the same passion for brain-machine interfaces and AI. But above all, we share the same values. We believe it is possible to be successful tech entrepreneurs while innovating for the better good. And this can be achieved with our inclusive brain-machine interfaces and AI. That's how Inclusive Brains began: An entrepreneurial journey as much human as technological.

– For most people, moving objects with their mind is pure science fiction.

Paul: The comparison with the Jedis from the Star Wars movies is a blessing and a curse. It’s the reason many think our neural interfaces are something from the future. But Olivier has been working on brain-machine interfaces for almost 20 years, and it's been 7 years since Rodrigo mind-controlled the F1! As for me, I developed my own BCI alone in my student room. Guess what it was? None other than a mind-controlled BB8 drone from the Star War franchise! So, I guess I somewhat contributed to us being always compared to Jedis right? But we are aware that, for most people, moving things with your mind is something you only see in movies, not at home or at work. We want to change this perception by making brain-machine interfaces accessible to everyone, not just people with disabilities. We have developed a system that allows faster calibration of neural interfaces thanks to our proprietary generative AI. What makes our cognitive AI agents special is that they are multimodal. This means that they are trained with various types of behavioral and neurophysiological data: Brainwaves, heartbeats, facial muscle activity, eye movements, or prosody, our voice intonations. We can therefore monitor levels of stress, attention, cognitive load and fatigue with high accuracy to help machines adapt to how people feel in real time, and therefore to preserve users’ physical and mental health.

Olivier: Take cars for example. They have a lot of sensors and AI on board to help drivers with tedious tasks such as parallel parking, to detect drowsiness, to avoid collisions and to assist us in many other ways when we are behind the wheel. All the innovations embarked in vehicles are there to serve and to protect us. How come our workstations are offering the same kind of assistance and protection? How come they are not also equipped with AI to make our workdays less stressful, to help us be more productive and, above all, to prevent occupational risks and health issues, be them physical or mental? Today, employees must adapt to their work environments when it should be the other way around: machines should adapt to people. With Paul and our teams, we have worked hard to make this a reality.

But for machines be truly adaptive and to improve our physical and mental health, at work and elsewhere, AI must do more than understanding language. ChatGPT, even the latest Omni version released recently is great tech, but there's so much more to words when interacting with a machine, or people for that matter. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Tencent, Meta… They have all understood this need for multimodal AI, as illustrated by these big tech companies embedding sensors into many connected devices like phones, watches and voice assistants. The current trend is to add eye-tracking in phones and augmented or virtual reality devices. Their next step, according to recent patents by Apple and Meta, will be to integrate brain sensors into headphones, eyewear, or even motorcycle or construction helmets. With Inclusive Brains, we have a head start, since we have been training our cognitive AI agents with multimodal neurophysiological data from the get go.

– How does it work?

Paul: AI allows us to better understand a part of the very complex way information circulates inside the brain, and between the brain and the body. We focus essentially on a very weak electric signal in the brain that we can pick up non-invasively. But brain activity is not the only information we analyze. The strength of our generative AI models lies in us leveraging several other types of data in addition to brainwaves: Heartbeat, eye-tracking, facial muscles, skin conductance. Not just text and images like most gen AI products available on the market today.

Our models integrate and make sense of these multimodal behavioral and neurophysiological signals to monitor stress, attention and cognitive load in real time. But also, for "mental commands" to be a reality. Mental commands mean that one can control connected devices and digital environments in silence, without the need to use vocal commands, to touch or to move a limb. Our proprietary gen AI uses information which can come from the brain, facial muscles, or eye movements so far to achieve “mind control”. Mental commands can change the lives of people isolated because of their reduced mobility, as they cannot use their hands or speak for some of them. All of this is being achieved in a non-invasive fashion, without implants and intracranial surgery. We are not excluding this option in the future. For that matter, one of the world’s top experts in intracranial brain recording, Dr. Anaïs Llorens, just joined our team recently. But, as of today, we are working to make our solution as "mainstream" as possible hence the focus on hardware-agnostic and non-invasive solutions. Moving a connected object with your mind is not very difficult today, many one-off research projects have achieved it, which is great. But doing it precisely and in a way that it becomes a mainstream feature integrated in a product that everyone can use daily is quite a different challenge.

– You two were named among the 2024 AI inventors of the year. Beyond your invention, what are the concrete applications of the solutions you develop?

Paul: Tens of millions of people are completely excluded from the education and the workplace due to life accidents or neurodegenerative diseases. Helping them was our primary motivation for creating Inclusive Brains. We were fortunate to receive the help of the French Association of Paralyzed Persons’ TechLab (APF). We met and worked with people who have a locked-in syndrome and can only communicate with eye blinks. Saying that this is limiting when it comes to communicating to others is quite an understatement. With neuroscience and generative AI, we can give back a little bit of autonomy such as mind-controlling a keyboard to send messages, for example, or even the possibility to be heard through a system that converts text typed with mental and facial commands to voice. The impossibility to communicate is the first obstacle to education and employment, and it is a priority for us to deliver solutions to address it.

Dr. Olivia Veran’s and her patient’s attention and stress levels monitored in real time (Smiler’s 4.0 Factory, Salon de Provence, France)[OO2]

Olivier: Just as the remote control was invented to help people with disabilities change channels on their TV sets without the help of the third party, before becoming a commercial success that changed the way billions of people interact with technology, our solutions will also benefit the general public in so many ways. Investing in assistive technologies – ‘handitech’ as they are referred to in France – helps far beyond people with disabilities. From a business standpoint it also represent massive markets. I would not mind being the entrepreneur behind the remote control or smart vocal assistants who too were first inveted to help people with disabilities. The market is massive.

We work with local and international companies to improve safety and well-being at work. Take for example our partnership with the Biotech Dental Group, headquartered in Provence with a global footprint. With its Senior Vice-President, Dr. Olivia Veran, we are developing solutions to improve the quality of care delivery by measuring in real-time the stress and attention levels of patients and dental surgeons. This is very useful to best prepare patients pre-surgery and therefore to get the best outcomes.

Monitoring in real time stress, attention and cognitive load levels in the brains of two surgeons at the International Knee & Joint Center (Abu Dhabi, UAE)[OO3]

With Prof. Sébastien Parratte, a fellow Marseillais who is now a lead surgeon at the International Knee & Joint Centre in Abu Dhabi, we achieved a world first: recording the brain activity of two surgeons working together during a series of surgeries performed the same day. Our goal was to identify their peak performance cycles, optimize their recovery time, and therefore make sure these top healthcare professionals get the amount of rest they need, at the right time. With Biotech Dental and the International Knee & Joint Center, our end goal is always to leverage our unique blend of gen AI and neuroscience to preserve the physical and mental health of people delivering healthcare, and therefore improve the quality of care provided to patients. This is something that I have been working on since I devised the Global Coalition on Value-Based Healthcare almost a decade ago during my time at the World Economic Forum.

Team Inclusive Brains demonstrating Prometheus BCI to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (Versailles, France)[OO4]

We are mindful that it might be difficult for some to get what we are doing. Hence it is key for us to showcase our tech “live” in order for people to experience our real-time cognitive detections and mind-control features by themselves. This way they can see how real they are, and how well they function. At the end of May, we will give a keynote speech at the United Nations during its 'AI for Good' summit, but before that, we were among the 10 companies selected for the Choose France summit organized by President Macron and Business France in Versailles on May 13. These are also great learning and business opportunities.

– For nearly 2 years, you have been developing the Prometheus BCI technology relentlessly. It is a mind-controlled exoskeleton arm that also uses facial muscles and expressions to be controlled with more accuracy. Your cognitive AI helped Nathalie Labrégère, a person with a physical and a cognitive disability who was chosen by Région Sud, with her Olympic Torch Relay which took place in Marseille. How did you come up with this idea?

Paul: The idea came after a conversation with Rodrigo Hübner Mendes, who carried the torch in Rio in 2016. His quadriplegia did not allow him to do it autonomously. We mistakenly thought that, after the mind-controlled Formula 1, it would not be too difficult to develop a similar solution with an exoskeleton. Especially, since Olivier and Mark Pollock started working on combining neurotech to an exoskeleton ten years ago at UCLA. We were so wrong. For months, we developed the interface, the AI agents, and then a video game to train volunteers and our models. When we were awarded the Public Bank of Investment (BPI) Handitech Trophy at the end of last year by the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Prof. Sylvie Retailleau, we met another awardee, David Gouaillier. His company, Orthopus, develops cost-effective exoskeletons for people with disabilities. We immediately clicked as we share the same values and mission. We demonstrated Prometheus BCI live for the first time at Fortune’s flagship event Brainstorm AI and the response was overwhelming. We are thrilled that our AI and neural interface helped Nathalie and her twin brother Denis achieve their dream in front of thousands of people in the streets of Marseille, and hundreds of millions of people on TV and on social media. Denis, who was in charge of his sister’s Permobile wheelchair, is a person with autism who volunteers at LADAPT, an org that helps people with disability on a daily basis. LADAPT introduced us and Région Sud to Nathalie and her lovely family. Denis is not very comfortable in a crowded environment to say the least. We therefore used MN8, the world’s first commercial brain-sensing earbuds – released back in 2019 when Olivier was President of EMOTIV – to monitor Denis’ stress level in real time thanks to our multimodal cognitive AI agent that assisted him throughout this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Olivier and I were not allowed to be with Denis and Nathalie in the security zone hence, we could monitor how Denis was feeling from afar. Our neurotech and AI assisted on two fronts: mental commands for Nathalie to be able to move the exoskeletong arm and reach the torch, and real-time monitoring of cognitive functions. The latter being is actually a game changer in the workplace.

David Schajer (CHRO at CMA CGM) during the “torch kiss” with Nathalie and Denis Labrégère (Marseille, France)[OO5]

Olivier: We have to acknowledge the significant role played by a special initiative that helped us get Prometheus BCI off the ground at the end of 2022. It’s called the ‘Assistive Tech & AI for Inclusion YGL Impact Initiative’ (AT4i). I launched it together with other Young Global Leaders (YGL) of the World Economic Forum. These included Rodrigo Hübner Mendes of course, but also Paralympic Gold medalist Susie Rodgers, explorer and technologist Mark Pollock, robotics wizard Dr. Corina Lathan, former head of inclusion at the 2012 Olympics Stephen Frost, remote pioneer Sara Sutton, former Minister of Education and Sports of Argentina Esteban Bullrich, human rights lawyer Simone George and, of course, the amazing Brooke Ellison who sadly passed earlier this year and whom we miss so very much. Let’s not forget the support of The Valuable 500 founded by another YGL, my friend Caroline Casey who has been advising us all along. We are also grateful to the many people at the Paris 2024 organizing committee, especially Grégory Murac and Coline Guillou at the helm of the Olympic Torch Relay, who have been guiding and supporting us for more than a year now.

Aylin Somersan Coqui (CEO, Allianz Trade) with Olivier Oullier and Paul Barbaste (Founders, Inclusive Brains) (Paris, France)[OO6]

But a plan, as well intended as it is, cannot be executed without the right partner. And Prometheus BCI would not have been achieved without the AI and inclusion partnership with Allianz Trade we signed earlier this month. Since the day I met CEO Aylin Somersan Coqui last year, she has been championing Prometheus BCI. We will never thank her enough for helping turn our project into a reality. This unique partnership now provides us with essential logistical and financial support to deploy and have impact beyond the torch relay. It allows us to continue improving our AI models, contribute to the professional integration of people with disabilities, and improve the safety and well-being of all employees, with no discrimination whatsoever. This is a concrete and scalable use case of AI (and neurotech) for Good! As part of this partnership, we committed to donate exoskeletons to organizations helping people with disabilities. Moreover, we will make the mental command AI model open source for all non-for-profit projects helping people with disabilities to benefit from our R&D effort for free. The core of this innovation partnership with Allianz Trade is to show how generative AI and neurotechnologies can have a positive social impact not only for people with disabilities, but also how it benefits everybody regardless of their physicality, abilities and needs, however special they might be. It is crucial to emphasize this again and again. Innovation for inclusion is a strong value we share with Allianz Trade/. We are proud to run this project together and hope many others will be inspired.

Nathalie and Denis Labrégère[OO7]

– How has Région Sud supported you?

Paul: Regarding Prometheus BCI, nothing would have happened without Région Sud selecting Nathalie Labrégère amongst its official torch bearers after we got introduced to her by LADAPT.

As a startup, we have been supported from the beginning by Région Sud and the Aix-Marseille Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIAMP), which both work in synergy. When Olivier returned from the United States, we toured the various French regions to see what was offered to us. It was here, in region Provence-Alps-French Riviera (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) that we were offered the best conditions, with a lot of understanding, support and assistance by risingSUD, the region’s economic agency . This, for example, opened the doors to a scientific partnership with IBM to benefit from their most powerful quantum computers that helped train the AI models at the core of Prometheus BCI.

Olivier: The international reach and attractivity of Région Sud is also a big plus. For example, going to Davos at the beginning of the year with Région Sud President Dr. Renaud Muselier, who was part of President Macron’s official delegation, offered us great opportunities. In June, thanks to risingSUD, we’ll proudly represent the AI effort of our region at Vision Gulf, the main business event between France and Gulf countries. Another opportunity for us to meet international investors and clients.

Back to Prometheus BCI, and Inclusive Brains overall, I imagine that at the beginning, both the Région Sud and the CCIAMP teams must have thought our vision was a bit crazy. And then we showed that not only did the technology work, but that we could combine strong social impact with generating revenue. So we were able to benefit from the support and backing of the rich local ecosystem that, in addition to Région Sud, risingSUD and the CCIAMP includes Eurobiomed, La French Tech Aix-Marseille, Club Top 20, rIAlity Lab, the CMA-CGM Foundation and its social incubator ‘Le Phare’. The partnership with Aix-Marseille University and the support of its President Prof. Eric Berton.

This multi-stakeholder support is more than appreciated at various levels including legal work and fundraising. When one is under the water, working around the clock for a startup to take off, French admin can be a bit overwhelming, and sort of an unknown territory especially for me as my entrepreneurial experience was almost exclusively in the US before Inclusive Brains. Like many startups in the region, benefiting from quality support and assistance from Région Sud and its partners saved us a lot of time … And many hours of sleep. Which is very important for our brains! So, we extend a big thank you for believing in us before our startup even existed, and for the attention and support provided since then.

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