Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter \u201cDoom\u201d and say they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain\u2019s networking system.<\/p>\n
Each so-called \u201cbiological computer\u201d contains around 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations.<\/p>\n
Having mastered the simple computer game \u201cPong\u201d, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball across a screen, the brain cells have moved on to bigger things.<\/p>\n
Initially, the neurons were at the \u201clevel of a beginner who\u2019s never played a video game before,\u201d Alon Loeffler, Cortical Labs\u2019 senior application scientist, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoom\u201d involves a chaotic 3D game-world where the user is required to explore its surroundings and dispatch enemies \u2014 no easy task for a clump of cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were walking into walls a lot, shooting the walls, turning around, doing funny things like that,\u201d Loeffler said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then eventually they started targeting the enemies more regularly and correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the cleanest execution, however. One demon takes several attempts to slaughter, with shots fired in multiple directions before the target is hit.<\/p>\n
But the mind-bending research proves the neurons can adapt to stimuli in real time and complete goal-directed learning, Cortical Labs say.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Scratching the surface\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
The researchers converted the digital environment in \u201cDoom\u201d into patterns of electrical signals the neurons on the chip could understand.<\/p>\n
When an enemy appears, specific electrodes stimulate the neurons on the special chip called a CL1, causing them to react.<\/p>\n
Different patterns of neuron activity produce specific responses, such as firing the gun or moving left or right.<\/p>\n
Researchers monitor the electrical activity of the neurons from a computer screen connected to the CL1, represented by thousands of tiny dots.<\/p>\n
From this data, the team adjusts their input to influence and train the neuron\u2019s activity.<\/p>\n
The CL1 isn\u2019t limited to computer games \u2014 the chip can be coded to perform a range of applications, from drug screening to AI-like machine learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are just scratching the surface of what these neural cultures can achieve when integrated in systems like our CL1,\u201d said chief scientific and operations officer Brett Kagan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur neural cultures have been explored for a variety of tasks,\u201d he said \u2014 everything from \u201crobotics, real-time learning tasks that are similar to AI, as well as healthcare, medicine, disease modelling, drug screening and even personalised medicine\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Not \u2018wacky science\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Kagan describes the CL1 chip as \u201ca more sustainable and more powerful form of intelligence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The human brain runs on an estimated 20 watts of power, a level of efficiency that silicon computing and artificial intelligence have not yet been able to replicate.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s \u201cnot aimed to replace what AI is doing\u201d it\u2019s intended to \u201cgive us abilities that we\u2019ve never had before\u201d, Kagan said.<\/p>\n
The cells have a six-month lifespan and aren\u2019t yet capable of producing consistent, programmable results.<\/p>\n
But analysts say the project\u2019s value could lie in its more sustainable power consumption compared to regular chips.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need better ways to manage that power envelope and get higher levels of efficiency,\u201d William Keating, CEO of semiconductor research company Ingenuity, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t wacky science or some bunch of scammers. This is real science and it\u2019s making real progress.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter \u201cDoom\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,3389,210250,128],"class_list":["post-706919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-international","tag-mna","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}