Scientists race to make ‘living’ computers powered by human cells

Roots may be in science fiction, but a small number of researchers have made real progress while trying to create computers from living cells.

Welcome to the world of strange bio.

Among those who lead the roads, there is a group of scientists I went to meet in Switzerland.

One day, they hopes that we can see how artificial intelligence (AI) learns and uses some of the energy of existing methods.

Founding partner of the FinalSpark Laboratory I visited. This is the vision of Fred Jordan.

We are used to hardware and software ideas on the computers we are currently using.

Dr Jordan and others in the field use the term “wetware”.

In simple terms, it involves forming neurons developed in clusters called organoids, which can be connected to electrodes – at this point, the process of trying to use them as mini computers can begin.

Dr Jordan acknowledges that the concept of bio -computation for many people is probably a bit strange.

“In science fictions, people have been living with these ideas for a long time,” he said.

“When you start saying ‘I will use a neuron like a small machine’, it allows you to question what we are with a different appearance of our own brain.”

The process for the finish starts with stem cells derived from human skin cells they buy from a clinic in Japan. Real donors are anonymous.

However, perhaps surprisingly, there are no offers.

“There are many people approaching us,” he said.

“But we only choose stem cells from official suppliers, because the quality of the cells is essential.”

In the laboratory, Dr. Flora Brozzi, the cellular biologist of Sun Flora Brozzi gave me a dinner with several small white sphere.

Each small sphere is actually a small, laboratory grown mini-brain-grown mini-brain-organoids, which are made of culturally cultural live stem cells to become the clusters of neurons and supportive cells.

They are not close to the complexity of a human brain, but they have the same building blocks.

After a process that can last for several months, the organoids are ready to fit into an electrode and are then asked to respond to simple keyboard commands.

This is a tool for sending and receiving electrical signals, the results are saved to a normal computer.

This is a simple test: you press a button that sends an electrical signal from the electrodes, and if it works (not always), you can see a small activity splash on a screen.

What is displayed is a moving graphic that resembles EEG.

I press the switch several times quickly and the answers stop suddenly. Then the graph has a short, different explosion of energy.

When I asked what happened, Dr Jordan said that the organoids were doing and what they still don’t understand why. Maybe I disturbed them.

Electrical stimulations are the first steps towards the goal of triggering learning in the bio -bio -biolying neurons, so that they can eventually adapt to fulfilling tasks.

“Always the same thing for artificial intelligence,” he said.

“You give a little input, you want an output used.

“For example, you give a cat’s picture, you want him to say that the output is a cat,” he explained.

It is simple to maintain an ordinary computer – it only needs a power supply – but what happens with bio -inflict?

Scientists have no answer yet.

“Organoids do not have blood vessels,” said Simon Schultz, Professor of Neurotechnology and Director of Neurotechnology Center at Imperial College London.

“The human brain has blood vessels that penetrate more than one scale and provide nutrients to ensure good functioning.

He continued: “We don’t yet know how to make them smooth. So this is the biggest difficulty.”

Something for sure. When we talk about dying a computer, it is literally with “Wetware”.

FinalSpark has made some progress in the last four years: organoids can now survive up to four months.

However, there are some frightening findings associated with the final deaths.

Sometimes they observe an activity rush before you die of organoids-similar to increased heart rate and brain activity observed in some people at the end of life.

“There have been a few events where we had a rapid increase in activity in the last minutes or in 10 seconds. [of life]”Dr Jordan said.

“I think we have recorded about 1,000 or 2,000 of these individual deaths in the last five years.”

“It is sad because we have to stop the experiment, we must understand why he died, and then we do it again,” he said.

Prof Schultz accepts this unfair approach

“We shouldn’t be afraid of them, they are just computers made of a different substrate of a different material.”

Finalspark is not the only scientist working in the field of bio.

The Australian company Cortical Labs announced in 2022 that it has managed to buy artificial neurons to play early computer game Pong.

In the United States, researchers at the University of Johns Hopkins are building “mini brains” to examine how they process the information-in the context of drug development for neurological situations such as Alzheimer’s and autism.

Umut is that AI can soon charge such a work.

However, for now, Dr. Lena Smirnova believes Wetware is scientifically exciting – but the early stage.

And he said there was little likely to replace the main material used for computer chips.

“Bio -informing, silicone should complete artificial intelligence – silicone artificial intelligence also advances disease modeling and reduces the use of animal.” He said.

Prof Schultz accepts: “I think they won’t be able to compete Silicon in many things, but we’ll find a niche.”

However, even if technology approaches real world practices, Dr Jordan is still fascinated by sci -fi origins.

“I was always a science fiction fan,” he said.

“When there was a science fiction film or a book, I was always a little upset because my life wasn’t like in the book. Now I feel like I was writing the book in the book.”

Additional Reports of Franchesca Hashemi