Sammy Nio

Sammy Nio is a Neuralink BCI Research Field Engineer who works with clinical-trial participants using Neuralink’s brain-computer interface. He was identified in Neuralink’s speech-restoration demonstration as a field engineer supporting Kenneth Shock in the VOICE study, which uses neural signals and AI systems to restore speech for people with severe speech impairment.

Neuralink Says 20-Patient Scale Is Advancing Brain-AI Interfaces

Neuralink co-founder and president DJ Seo told Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire at AI Ascent 2026 that the company has moved from a single human implant demonstration to more than 20 patients, while still treating its current work as restoration of lost function rather than elective enhancement. Seo argued that Neuralink’s larger aim is not faster computer control but a higher-bandwidth interface between brains and AI, eventually enabling direct, multimodal transfer of concepts. The path there, he said, depends less on a single implant breakthrough than on scaling surgery, robotics, manufacturing, clinical evidence and neural-data models.

Sequoia CapitalMay 28, 202612 min read