{
  "type": "article",
  "title": "The Engineer Who Helped Build Apple's FaceID Is Now Training AI to Read Your Brain's Health",
  "summary": "Hemispheric, a startup cofounded by former Apple FaceID engineer Gidi Littwin, has raised $52 million after training AI models on brain data from 100,000 people to diagnose conditions like PTSD, depression and Alzheimer's without surgery.",
  "content": "A startup founded by one of the engineers behind Apple's FaceID has raised $52 million after building deep learning models trained on brain data collected from 100,000 people, an approach it believes can finally make brain health measurable without surgery. The company, called Hemispheric, wants its technology to eventually diagnose and monitor conditions such as depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's using nothing more invasive than a headset a patient wears for about 15 minutes.\n\nFrom FaceID and Vision Pro to Brain Data\nGidi Littwin, who helped build FaceID at Apple, left the company in 2020 looking for a new challenge. He found it when Hagai Lalazar, who would become his Hemispheric cofounder, cold-messaged him on LinkedIn. Lalazar had already started developing artificial intelligence that could study the brain without surgery and was searching for a commercially minded partner to help turn the technology into a company; by the time he reached out to Littwin, he had already spoken with around 75 other candidates.\n\nAt Apple, Littwin had also worked on hand-tracking for the Vision Pro augmented reality headset, a project that required collecting what he described as hundreds of thousands of subjects' worth of data to train the deep learning models behind the feature. That experience shaped how the two cofounders approached Hemispheric. \"There were massive data collection operations behind these projects and we knew we had to build something very similar at Hemispheric,\" Littwin says, \"and we have.\"\n\nA Quarter-Million Hours of Brain Data\nDoctors diagnosing conditions like depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's have long had to rely mostly on subjective questionnaires and behavioral observation, in part because every person's brain activity looks different. To try to change that, Littwin and Lalazar built what they call their most prized possession, a quarter of a million hours of brain data gathered from 100,000 paid volunteers across Asia, as well as in Tel Aviv and Boston. Subjects took part in a series of activities designed to look like games, but each one was built to activate a different part of the brain.\n\nTeaching AI to Read Electrical Signals\nThat dataset was used to train what Hemispheric calls a frontier model, which infers brain function from electrical activity recorded inside the skull, in much the same way large language models deduce meaning by statistically analyzing text. The team then tested the generalized model on smaller subsets of people, including those already diagnosed with PTSD, schizophrenia and depression, and said the model made accurate deductions about their brain health. Hemispheric is now running a clinical study to test whether the same model can diagnose, and even predict, Alzheimer's.\n\nFirst Target: FDA Clearance for a PTSD Tool\nThe company plans to submit its first product, aimed at studying PTSD, to the FDA for approval early next year, with hopes of bringing it to the public later in 2027. In practice, diagnosing a cognitive disorder involves a patient wearing a lightweight EEG headset that records electrical activity in the brain for around 15 minutes while they interact with an app on a tablet. Hemispheric says its AI model then helps clinicians decode those signals to make a diagnosis, choose the most effective treatment by predicting how a patient will respond, and track progress over time.\n\nAkin to a Blood Test\nLalazar describes the long-term vision in simple terms. \"The future that we envision is one where this is akin to a blood test,\" he says. \"The device is going to be very, very cheap; it will be able to be sold and distributed throughout mental health clinics, hospitals, and even psychologists' offices.\"\n\nCompeting With Big Tech's Health Ambitions\nHemispheric is entering a field that is already moving fast. AI-assisted diagnostic tools for conditions such as lung cancer are already in clinical use and are speeding up access to treatment across Europe. At the same time, AI giants including OpenAI and Anthropic are expanding into health care, adding to the competition facing the growing number of startups working in the space.\n\nThe Money, and What Comes Next\nHemispheric's $52 million came from early-stage investors including American and Israeli venture capital firms as well as individual investors, among them Howard Morgan, an early backer of Uber. The company plans to use the funding to build partnerships with governments, healthcare organizations and pharmaceutical firms, hire more staff in the US, and push forward its regulatory approval process. It also intends to collect brain data from millions more people to keep improving its model.\n\nLittwin and Lalazar are separately developing their own brain scanners, which they believe can capture more useful data for their models than traditional EEG equipment. \"These devices were never built for machine learning and definitely not deep learning,\" Littwin says.\n\nWhat this means for you\nThis technology isn't available to patients yet, but it points to where mental health diagnosis could be headed.\n\n• For patients and families: if the PTSD tool clears FDA approval and reaches clinics as planned in 2027, diagnosing conditions like PTSD, depression or Alzheimer's could eventually involve a quick, non-invasive headset test instead of relying only on questionnaires.\n• For investors and the health tech sector: the $52 million raise signals growing competition in AI-driven brain diagnostics, a space now also being entered by major AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.\n\nQuestions & Answers\n\n1. What is Hemispheric?\nIt's a startup cofounded by former Apple FaceID engineer Gidi Littwin and Hagai Lalazar that uses AI to study brain health without invasive procedures.\n\n2. How much funding has Hemispheric raised?\n$52 million from early-stage investors including American and Israeli venture capital firms and individual investors such as Howard Morgan.\n\n3. How does Hemispheric's technology work?\nPatients wear a lightweight EEG headset for about 15 minutes while interacting with an app, and an AI model analyzes the brain's electrical activity to help diagnose conditions.\n\n4. What condition will Hemispheric's first product target?\nPTSD, which the company plans to submit to the FDA for approval early next year.\n\n5. When could the product become publicly available?\nHemispheric hopes to roll it out to the public later in 2027, pending FDA approval.\n\n6. How much brain data has Hemispheric collected?\nA quarter of a million hours of brain data from 100,000 paid volunteers across Asia, Tel Aviv and Boston.\n\n7. Can the technology diagnose Alzheimer's?\nHemispheric is currently running a clinical study to test whether its model can diagnose and even predict Alzheimer's.\n\n8. Who else is working on AI in health care?\nOpenAI and Anthropic are both expanding into health care, adding competition for startups like Hemispheric.\n\nInspiration & Lessons\nLittwin and Lalazar's path from a cold LinkedIn message to a $52 million-backed brain health company offers a few practical lessons.\n\n• A cold message can lead somewhere real: Lalazar reached out to Littwin on LinkedIn after already speaking with around 75 other candidates, showing persistence in finding the right cofounder paid off.\n• Cross-industry skills transfer: Littwin applied the large-scale data collection experience he gained building FaceID and Vision Pro's hand-tracking at Apple directly to training Hemispheric's brain models.\n• Big problems need big data: rather than relying on small studies, the founders built a quarter of a million hours of brain data from 100,000 volunteers before trying to train a generalized model.\n• Validate before scaling: the team tested its model on people already diagnosed with PTSD, schizophrenia and depression before pursuing regulatory approval, building evidence step by step.",
  "url": "https://trendkia.com/en/science/apple-ke-faceid-ko-banane-vale-injiniyara-ne-aba-banaya-dimaga-ki-sehata-parakhane-vala-ai-modala-7888",
  "category": "Science",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-15",
  "tags": [
    "Hemispheric",
    "Brain Health AI",
    "Gidi Littwin",
    "FaceID",
    "PTSD Diagnosis",
    "Alzheimer's Research",
    "EEG Technology",
    "Health Tech Funding"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "site": "TrendKia"
}