# AI could help restore lost brain function

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/ai-could-help-restore-lost-brain-function/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Bill Ackman](https://realalpha.app/people/bill-ackman/) · Bill Ackman is founder and CEO of Pershing Square. · Founded and runs Pershing Square, an activist investment firm; executive chairman of Howard Hughes Holdings.
- Host: [Nicolai Tangen](https://realalpha.app/people/nicolai-tangen/) · CEO, Norges Bank Investment Management
- Show: In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen
- Episode: [Bill Ackman: Is Permanent Capital an Investor’s Biggest Edge? | Podcast | In Good Company](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/), Oct 28, 2026
- Moment: 41:04 to 44:11 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/ai-could-help-restore-lost-brain-function/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2464

## Quote

> “we're going to be able to get **more signal from the brain** and we're going to be able to interpret that signal much more effectively than we had before.”
> — [Bill Ackman](https://realalpha.app/people/bill-ackman/) at [42:27](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2547) · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen

## Takeaways

1. AI may help decode brain signals more effectively.
2. Ackman sees promise in both Neuralink and less invasive technologies.
3. He expects progress in restoring vision and mobility within years.

## About this segment

After his daughter’s brain hemorrhage, Bill Ackman describes investing in brain-computer interface research. He expects AI to make brain signals easier to interpret, opening new possibilities for vision and mobility.

From “Bill Ackman: Is Permanent Capital an Investor’s Biggest Edge? | Podcast | In Good Company”, Oct 28, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[41:08](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2468) goals to bring her back. So that has been a big overhang in the last seven months. But you're funding some new initiatives in this space. So, you know, the first focus has been her. But the more I learned about brain rehab, recovery, strokes, rehabilitation, the more I realized how little we've done in this area. Because many neurosurgeons and neurologists are sort of nihilists. They don't really believe that they can do much for patients. And there's so much that can be done. And, you know, my daughter who, you know, lost pretty much, you know, basic function, ability to walk, ability to speak, ability to see, is, you know, regaining function. She's cognitively, as far as I can tell, fine.

[41:54](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2514) She's relearning how to speak. And she's learning, again, how to walk. And I'm confident we're going get her back. The biggest challenge right now is the optic nerve damage from the pressure on the brain that has caused her to lose probably 98% of her vision. But even there, I'm optimistic. I've spent a lot of time in the last few months meeting with all these sort of brain-computer interface companies, obviously Neuralink being the most famous, but there's some other very promising lower intervention technologies. And this will be a period, you know, AI is going to enable us, we're going to be able to get more signal from the brain and we're going to be able to interpret that signal much more effectively than we had before. And, you know, the blind will see again and people have not been able to walk, you know, so to speak paraplegics, I believe

[42:48](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2568) we'll walk again. And that's going to be, it's a matter of not months, but years, but not too many years. So tragedy, you know, I have optimism that she's going to recover and I have, I'm excited about the potential. And, you know, one of the fortunate things about my day job is it's enabled me to, one, learn about lots of things. Two, I've got certain skills that apply real estate and otherwise. And we've been able to assemble a 3.4 acre site in New York with a 400,000 square foot biotech building. And then I put out a tweet, the power of Twitter, and I'm recruiting incredible people to run this institute. There are a lot of people who've been, I mean, there's almost no one who doesn't have a parent or a sibling or someone who's had either an accident, a stroke, you know, they've gone to war and, you know, got taken a bullet or, you know, Alzheimer's or cognitive

[43:42](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2622) of decline. I mean, this is something, you know, the brain is sort of everything. And we've not spent enough time, energy, resources. And there are lots of constraints in the way the funding environment works for science. So we're going to put a lot of resources into answering these questions. And actually, New York City is a good place to do. Yeah, sure. Well, thanks for sharing. I'm a father of three kids and the same age, but I don't think I can imagine what you've been through here.

[44:07](https://realalpha.app/v/T8nHLUlRGkg/?t=2647) It's a big deal.