{"id":295439,"date":"2025-11-20T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295439\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T12:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T12:41:16","slug":"chinas-wukong-supercomputer-could-revolutionize-drug-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295439\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Wukong Supercomputer Could Revolutionize Drug Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers in China recently made an astonishing announcement: They\u2019d created a supercomputer modeled on a monkey\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the National Key Laboratory of Brain-Computer Intelligence at Zhejiang University dubbed the supercomputer<\/a> Darwin Monkey, or \u201cWukong,\u201d after the mythological primate that was one of the chief inspirations behind the Dragon Ball Z character, Goku. <\/p>\n

The scientists designed their machine to mimic the brain of a macaque, a type of monkey often used in scientific research, because it exhibits human-like intelligence and cognition, according to a university press release<\/a> originally written in Chinese and translated into English. They say it\u2019s \u201ca step toward more advanced brain-like intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wukong consists of over two billion spiking neurons in an artificial neural network, which imitate biological neurons by communicating with each other through electrical pulses referred to as spikes. The supercomputer also includes 100 billion synapses, or the area where two neurons connect, allowing them to \u201ccommunicate\u201d with each other by passing a signal back and forth.<\/p>\n

That makes Wukong potentially the largest neuromorphic, or brain-like, computer in the world. Because these machines mimic biological circuitry, they\u2019re highly energy efficient. Traditional supercomputers torch through multiple megawatts of power; meanwhile, Wukong is able to run on about 2,000 watts, not dissimilar from a household appliance. <\/p>\n

Futurists say that increasingly advanced neuromorphic computers<\/a> like Wukong could one day usher in the singularity\u2014the hypothetical point at which artificial minds surpass the intelligence of humans. But more practically, knowing how exactly the most minute parts of our brains work is invaluable; it could help us understand diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s or cancer and potentially help us create lifesaving drugs. <\/p>\n

\u201cOUR BRAINS ARE NOT A UBIQUITOUS BOX OF SYNAPSES. THERE\u2019S SPECIALIZATION GOING ON IN WAYS WE DON\u2019T ENTIRELY UNDERSTAND.\u201d <\/p>\n

If Wukong really does exist\u2014and that\u2019s a big \u201cif\u201d\u2014the advance marks a huge milestone in our understanding of how the human brain works, says Cory Miller, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego. \u201cWe know the sort of big level questions, like how systems interact and the flow of information in the brain,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the nuances of circuitry and cellular level computations\u2014that\u2019s where it gets tricky. That\u2019s where the frontier of research is.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means the first lab to be able to successfully create an AI version of a human-like brain would have a huge scientific\u2014and potentially, socioeconomic\u2014advantage on the world stage when it comes to having a handle on the mysterious ways in which our brains work. And macaques are a great place to start. \u201cMonkeys live long and have slow birth rates, just like us,\u201d he says. \u201cSo we\u2019d potentially be able to learn a lot of really cool stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

Further, uploading a brain onto a supercomputer could make it possible to create multiple iterations of an experiment quickly, efficiently, and effectively without having to wait years to move from animals to humans to official approval. It means we could figure out the roots of disease faster and more methodically, pinpointed to exact cellular or molecular processes that aren\u2019t working properly and pointing toward drugs and treatments that can help alleviate pain and disease more quickly and efficiently. <\/p>\n

But don\u2019t expect AI to absolutely take over science one day. Miller says that while AI offers unprecedented opportunities for advancements in science, it won\u2019t be replacing the real analytical work scientists must do while interpreting data and making discoveries. \u201cThe idea that AI can replace biomedical research is so wrong,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can\u2019t fix something if you don\u2019t understand how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dive Deeper \u2b07\ufe0f<\/p>\n

However, as much as Miller believes Wukong would be a breakthrough for neuroscience and medicine, he is skeptical that researchers have really made this advancement. \u201cGenerally, it\u2019s hard to get real data out of China [about experiments like these],\u201d he explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this before, and we should really take advancements like these with a grain of salt.\u201d (Zhejiang University did not return Popular Mechanics\u2019 request for comment.)<\/p>\n

Miller, whose work focuses on the sensory and motor processes that underlie behavior, recently published an op-ed<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal titled, \u201cThe Future of AI Lies in Monkeys, Not Microchips,\u201d that argues the value of neuroscientific research on primates. He says that the current administration\u2019s denouncement of primate research means that the value of creating an AI version of a human brain is \u201cincredibly high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Miller isn\u2019t sure that such a supercomputer would be able to produce the type of information we would need to understand the macaque brain, partially because hardware has not yet reached that level, and partially because the information that is available from these supercomputers isn\u2019t necessarily illustrative of the complex ways our brains work. Supercomputers are often built in a recursive manner, or via rote repetition, which isn\u2019t exactly how our brains work, Miller points out. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur brains are not a ubiquitous box of synapses. There\u2019s specialization going on in ways we don\u2019t entirely understand.\u201d <\/p>\n

Exclusive Pop Mech Digital Issues\"Chevron\"Chevron\"Lettermark\"<\/p>\n

Tanya Basu is a features editor at Popular Mechanics. Her work has been published in MIT Technology Review, The Daily Beast, and The Atlantic, among other places. Prior to being a journalist, she toyed with the idea of being an economist before deciding journalism was more her speed. Aside from her work, she is a competent knitter, an overly ambitious cook, and has a bad habit of buying more books than she can actually read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers in China recently made an astonishing announcement: They\u2019d created a supercomputer modeled on a monkey\u2019s brain. Researchers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[133174,133176,84493,133175,37201,62,12349,276,277,74220,133177,49,48,95,133173,133170,133182,4217,133180,133172,393,133169,82291,9078,133178,133179,133183,133171,133181,7828,61,126633,69683,15191,133168],"class_list":["post-295439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-000-watts","tag-100-billion-synapses","tag-84493","tag-2-billion-neurons","tag-37201","tag-ai","tag-alzheimers","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-biomedical-research","tag-brain-computer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-cory-miller","tag-darwin-monkey","tag-dragon-ball-z","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-goku","tag-macaque","tag-mental-health","tag-national-key-laboratory-of-brain-computer-intelligence","tag-neuromorphic-computing","tag-neuroscience","tag-popular-mechanics","tag-primate-research","tag-skepticism","tag-spiking-neurons","tag-sun-wukong","tag-supercomputer","tag-technology","tag-uc-san-diego","tag-wall-street-journal","tag-wukong","tag-zhejiang-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}