It has been just revealed the fact that there are new silicon chips these days which are powered by human brain cells. Check out the latest reports about this below.
New tech is in the works
It’s exciting news that a research project at an Australian university has received funding from the National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants Program. The project aims to advance the field of biological computing by growing 800,000 human brain cells onto silicon chips. This breakthrough could have significant implications for machine learning.
“This new technology capability in future may eventually surpass the performance of existing, purely silicon-based hardware,” explained project lead Adeel Razi, an associate professor in the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University, in a statement.
The team, a collaboration between Monash University researchers and Melbourne-based startup Cortical Labs, have dubbed their tech “DishBrain”. Last year, they hit headlines by demonstrating the prowess of their “synthetic biological intelligence” at classic computer game Pong.
Razi has ambitions that stretch way beyond that, however: “The outcomes of such research would have significant implications across multiple fields such as, but not limited to, planning, robotics, advanced automation, brain-machine interfaces, and drug discovery, giving Australia a significant strategic advantage.”
Using human brain cells to operate computers has several benefits. The DishBrain system is expected to enable “continual lifelong learning,” which is currently not possible for artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Biocomputers have the potential to continually acquire new skills and adjust to new tasks without losing previously learned knowledge. Additionally, they are more energy-efficient than non-biological computers.
The remarkable flexibility and adjustability of the human central nervous system could lead to progress in various machine learning-dependent devices like drones, wearables, and autonomous vehicles.
