Six years ago at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, I asked Sam Altman how OpenAI, with its complicated corporate structure, would make money. He said that someday, he'd ask the AI. When everyone snickered, he added, 'You can laugh. It's all right. But it really is what I actually believe.' Sitting again in front of an audience, this time across from Max Hodak, the co-founder and CEO of Science Corp., I can't help but remember that moment with Altman. Pale-complexioned Hodak, wearing jeans and a black zip-up sweatshirt, looks more like he'd fit in in a mosh pit than pitching a company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. But he's got a sly sense of humor that keeps the room engaged. Hodak started programming when he was six, and as an undergraduate at Duke, he worked his way into the lab of Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneering neuroscientist who has since become publicly critical of commercial brain-computer interface ventures. In 2016, Hodak co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk,...
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