Future of computing includes biology, says international team of scientists
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University, along with Dr. Brett Kagan, chief scientist at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, say it’s time to create a new kind of computer. Dr. Brett Kagan recently led the development of his DishBrain project in which human cells in petri dishes learn. play pong
In an article published today in Frontiers in Science, the team explores how biological computers can outperform today’s electronic computers for specific applications while using a fraction of the power that today’s computers and server farms require. It outlines how it can outperform.
They start by creating small clusters of 50,000 brain cells, known as organoids, grown from stem cells. They aim for his 10 million neurons, equivalent to the number of neurons in a turtle’s brain. By comparison, the average human brain has over 80 billion neurons.
This article highlights that the human brain continues to significantly outperform machines on certain tasks. For example, a human can learn to distinguish between two types of his objects (like dogs and cats) using just a few samples, but AI algorithms require thousands of samples. The AI, which he beat the Go world champion in 2016, was trained on data from his 160,000 games. That’s the equivalent of playing 5 hours every day for over 175 years.
It also improves the energy efficiency of the brain. Our brains are thought to be able to store more than a million times the capacity of an average home computer (2.5 petabytes) using the equivalent of just a few watts of power. In contrast, US data farms use more than 15,000 megawatts annually, much of it generated by dozens of coal-fired power plants.
In this paper, the authors outline a plan for ‘organoid intelligence’ or OI using brain organoids grown in cell culture. Cerebral organoids are not ‘small brains’, but they do share key aspects of brain function and structure. Organoids should now expand dramatically from approximately 50,000 cells. “For OI, he needs to increase this number to 10 million,” said senior author Professor Thomas Hartung of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Brett and his colleagues at Cortical Labs have already demonstrated that a biocomputer based on human brain cells is possible. A recent paper published in Neuron showed that a flattened culture of brain cells can learn to play the video game his Pong.
“We’ve shown that we can interact with living biological neurons to alter their activity and interact in ways that lead to something akin to intelligence,” says the relatively simple Pong. DishBrain’s Kagan, who plays “Working with the amazing team of people assembled by Professor Hartung and his colleagues for this organoid intelligence collaboration, Cortical Labs is now trying to replicate that research in brain organoids.”
“I would say duplicate [Cortical Labs’] Experiments with organoids already meet the basic definition of OI,” says Thomas.
“From now on, we’re just building the community, the tools and the technology to unlock the full potential of OI,” he said.
“This new field of biocomputing promises unprecedented advances in computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capabilities, all of which require less energy,” said Brett. say. “A particularly exciting aspect of this collaboration is the open and collaborative spirit in which it was formed. Bringing together these diverse professionals is not only essential to optimizing for success, but also It provides an important touchpoint for industry collaboration.”
The technology also allows scientists to better study personalized brain organoids developed from the skin or small blood samples of patients suffering from neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, where genetic factors, drugs, and toxins are present. You will be able to run tests to investigate how these conditions are affected.
Original: True AI Needs Biology: Computers with Human Brain Cells
Than: Johns Hopkins University
