Brains on a chip: Why startups are combining cells and silicon
... An ambitious startup from Australia is now throwing a novel ingredient into the mix: human brain cells.
Cortical Labs, a Melbourne-based company backed by one of the country's largest venture capital investors, Blackbird Ventures, recently published a paper describing their new chip. When connected to a computer, the cells on the chip -- dubbed DishBrain -- learned to play the classic arcade game Pong. Even better, the neurons improved their performance after receiving feedback on their play. ...
Such devices could also help scientists better understand the mysteries of the brain and develop drugs to treat neurological diseases. ...
"It occurred to us that biology might have the solution to unlock the holy grail of the AI research landscape, which is artificial general intelligence," Chong said. ...
To create DishBrain, the team at Cortical Labs first converted stem cells -- those that can be transformed into any type of cell -- into brain cells. They then transferred up to a million neurons onto a fingertip-sized microelectrode array made up of more than 26,000 sensors.
When hooked up to an external computer, the sensors transmitted electrical signals to the neurons to simulate Pong's game environment. "The neurons believe that they are a paddle and they live in a world where there's a ball that bounces around in this space," Chong said. "We then trained it in order to stop at the right spot in order to keep the ball bouncing and the game running." ...
See the full story here: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Spotlight/Brains-on-a-chip-Why-startups-are-combining-cells-and-silicon
