A group of scientists at Cortical Labs connected an artificially grown layer of around 800 thousand human neurons to a computer, creating a rudimentary bio-digital intelligence.
From the article:
A layer of living neurons is grown on a special silicon chip at the bottom of a thumb-size dish filled with nutrients. The chip, which is linked to a computer, can both detect electrical signals produced by the neurons, and deliver electrical signals to them.
To test the learning ability of the cells, the computer generated a game of Pong, a two-dimensional version of table tennis that gained a cult following as one of the first and most basic video games.
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At first, the cells didn’t understand the signals coming from the computer, or know what signals to send the other direction. They also had no reason to play the game.
So the scientists tried to motivate the cells using electrical stimulation: a nicely organized burst of electrical activity if they got it right. When they got it wrong, the result was a chaotic stream of white noise.
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The approach worked. Cells began to learn to generate patterns of electrical activity that would move the paddle in front of the ball, and gradually rallies got longer.
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And the level of play was remarkable, considering that each network contained fewer cells than the brain of a cockroach, Kagan says.
As an avid fan of hard science-fiction, and a complete ignoramus in the area of neuroscience (neurocomputing?), I wonder about potential scientific, technological and ethical implications of further research in this direction.
Faster learning bio-mechanical robots? Intelligent prosthetics figuring out how to correctly react to inputs from our brains? Direct silicon extensions to human cognition?
What about the ethics of experimenting on artificially grown networks of human neurons that are much more complex than those of very simple animals? To grossly oversimplify, once we reach one billion neurons, we will approach the level of a typical bird, while leaving cats behind.
The full report, “In vitro neurons learn and exhibit sentience when embodied in a simulated game-world”, is also openly available