In a world where technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace, Australian startup Cortical Labs is taking a unique approach to artificial intelligence (AI). By building computer chips using biological neurons from mice and humans, the company hopes to create a new class of AI that can solve society’s greatest challenges.
Cortical Labs’ mini-brains have less processing power than a dragonfly brain, which is not very powerful compared to the human brain. However, the company is working on a technology – dubbed DishBrain – to increase the processing power of its mouse-neuron-powered chips to be capable of playing a game of “Pong.” Pong is a simple arcade game that was used by AI company Deepmind to test the power of its AI algorithms back in 2013. If Cortical Labs can get its chips to play Pong, it would be a significant milestone in the development of this technology.
According to Cortical Labs’ co-founder Hon Weng Chong, DishBrain is a groundbreaking technology that enables researchers to study the intelligent properties of living neurons in a petri dish – a shallow, circular, transparent dish with a flat lid, used for the culture of microorganisms – outside of a body.
Early attempts
The use of biological neurons to power computers is not a new concept – been around for 20 years but no one has succeeded so far. In fact, researchers from Europe managed to turn on a working neural network that allows biological and silicon-based brain cells to communicate with each other over the internet. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) also attempted to use bacteria to build a computing system in 2016.
DishBrain is different from previous brains-on-a-chip devices, which only measured the electrical activity of neurons. DishBrain allows neurons to process information and respond accordingly, providing a more advanced level of intelligence.
In June 2019, Cortical Labs was founded and has since then successfully secured over $1.6 million in funding. Blackbird Ventures contributed approximately half of the funding, while the remaining amount was raised from private equity firms and angel investors.
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Ethical concerns
While the potential benefits of this technology are immense, there are ethical concerns to consider. Do people who donate skin cells for research know that their cells might be used to create neural computers? Should donors be compensated for their contributions? And could these computers develop consciousness and experience pain?
Fully informed donor consent is of paramount importance, according to Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan for Cortical Labs. Any donor should have the opportunity to reach an agreement for compensation as part of this process, and their bodily autonomy should be respected without coercion.
Endless possibilities
As the field of AI continues to evolve, the potential of using biological neurons to power computers opens up a new realm of possibilities for solving some of society’s greatest challenges. While DishBrain technology still has a long way to go before it can match the processing power of the human brain, the progress made by Cortical Labs and other researchers in this area is promising. The future of AI is exciting, and the possibilities are endless. Who knows what we will achieve when we combine the power of biology and technology?
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