Okay Chelsea, I have two different directions
this will go and two different stories through
each direction. So do you want an AI story or
do you want a plastic story? I'm gonna go with
AI. Okay, and do you want AI cope or AI humanism?
Humanism. Okay, this story is... You just say
the first thing that comes to mind. Okay, that's
the best way to do it. Yep. Let's do it. Okay.
How many choices? This article is on futurism
.com written by Victor Tangerman. March 9th,
2025 article title. Weird new computer runs AI
on captive human brain cells and you can buy
compute on the cloud. Okay. Australian startup
Cortical Labs has launched what it's calling
quote, world's first code -deployable biological
computer." The shoebox -sized device, dubbed
CL1, is a notable departure from a conventional
computer and uses brain cells to run fluid neural
networks. In 2022, Cortical Labs made a big splash
after teaching human brain cells in a petri dish
how to play the video game Pong. The CL1 however
is a fundamentally different approach as New
Atlas reports. It makes use of hundreds of thousands
of tiny neurons, roughly the size of an ant's
brain, each. which are cultivated inside a nutrient
-rich solution and spread out across the silicon
chip, according to the company's website. Through
a combination of, quote, hard silicon and soft
tissue, end quote, the company claims that owners
can, quote, deploy code directly to the real
neurons to solve today's most difficult challenges,
end quote. Quote, a simple way to describe it
would be like a body in a box. But it has filtration
for waves. It has where the media is stored.
It has pumps to keep everything circulating,
gas mixing, and of course, temperature controls,"
end quote. Cortical Labs Chief Science Officer
Brett Kagan told the new Atlas late last year.
Whether it will actually prove useful remains
to be seen, but Kagan is excited for scientists
to get their hands on the tech. Quote, there's
so many different options, end quote, he told
Australian broadcaster ABC News, suggesting it
could be used for, quote, disease modeling or
drug testing, end quote, quote. The large majority
of drugs from neurological and psychiatric diseases
that enter clinical trials testing fail because
there's so much more nuance when it comes to
the brain. But you can actually see that nuance.
when you test these tools. Our hope is that we're
able to replace significant areas of animal testing
with this." Kagan told New Atlas. For now, the
company is selling the device as a way to train
biological AI, meaning neural networks that rely
on actual neurons. In other words, the neurons
can be taught via the silicon chip. Quote, the
only thing that has generalized intelligence
are biological brains. End quote. Kagan told
ABC, quote, what humans, mice, cats, and birds
can do. that AI can't is infer from very small
amounts of data and then make complex decisions,"
end quote. But the CL1 isn't about to disrupt
the entire AI field overnight. Quote, we're not
here to try and replace the things that the current
AI methods do well, end quote, Kagan added. Nonetheless,
the approach could have some key advantages.
For instance, their neurons only use a few watts
of power compared to the infamously power hungry
AI chips that require orders of magnitude more
than that. Apart from selling the CL1, Cortical
Labs is also looking to sell compute via the
cloud, using its own assembled racks of the unusual
computers. In short, while it sounds like an
exciting new take on conventional computers,
Cortical Labs still has a lot to prove, especially
when it comes to teaching neurons not unlike
an AI. Quote, I know where it's coming from because
it is clear that these human neuronal networks
learn remarkably fast. End quote. A University
of Queensland biologist and cell research specialist
Ernst Wolvetang told ABC, quote, At this stage,
I would like to reserve my judgment because learning
Pong is one thing, but making complex decisions
is another. End quote, he added, end of article.
So, how do you feel about them growing brains
in computer chips to BAI? Well, I could definitely
use that technology to make decisions about what
fringy mini we should be doing. it would be great
for that actually seems to be a complex decision
to make just based on how this episode started
out and this is the first time i've used futurism
for its articles so i'm not quite sure what their
perspective is on ai but it was very rose -tinted
glasses they didn't even talk about like the
ethical weird parts of this yeah which is kind
of my next thought like Where would that come
in handy? Like, where would we be using that?
Would that be in a situation like I believe it
was a fringy mini we did before where it was
the AI was going to kill the human life over?
Was it? It was a pilot. Yeah, that one was really
dumb because it turns out it wasn't really AI.
Remember, it was the military one. where to get
points it was going to attack the target, but
they were only theorizing it. Yeah, they didn't
even run it through an AI. And is that like what
they're theorizing that like, like, where would
you use something like that? Where would have
to be capable of complex reasoning? Well, I know
where you would use it. Obviously, you would
regrow the brain cell tissue of somebody who's
died for the seance AI. Like, that's clearly
where you're supposed to be using this. Right.
We've done so many AI episodes. 20 minis, rather.
They're not... Yeah, we've never actually done
an episode. Okay, I could see where it would
be, but we already have enough to do that. Yeah,
but I don't know. This really creeps me out.
And I don't know how to feel about them growing
a brain, parts of a brain to run AI and particularly
where they think the line is where they can stop.
Growing more person for AI because that's where
their ethical line is like is it a whole brain?
Is it a head the whole body? That's okay What
like would we use them as war robots like the
implications of that are pretty like what would
it be used for? Yeah, and then I don't know if
they're it's pretty sinister and I would worry
on the other end of it too Where could we turn
actual humans into AI with their brain tissues?
Like I was just kind of talking about jokingly
at the seance, but like, I don't know, could
there now be a product out there where you use
your own brain cell tissue that has been replicated
to make your own AI? You could just become a
vampire and then that takes care of that. That
takes so much less ethical obscurity. It really
does. It really does. I don't think we have to
say anymore. No, I'm just worried that Zuckerberg
is going to learn about this and his whole like
metaverse. What's his AI like world that he wanted
to do? Meta. Yeah, but like, is that what it's
called? This is like the virtual world that he
wanted. Oh, it is called meta now. Okay. Yeah,
the whole company is meta. But I'm just worried
he's going to get control of this and say that
take all of our brain cells and put them in that
and we're going to have to like live in a virtual
office for an immortal amount of time. Yeah,
that's what it is. Meta. Because we're already
living it. So yeah, you think about it that way.
It's pretty... I'd rather be a vampire. Oh, yeah.
This is so much the lamer version of immortality.
It's totally lame. Yeah. Way lamer. And the real
weird implications are is how do we know this
hasn't already happened to all of us? You've
got 48 hours to figure that out if we're just
brain cells attached to a microchip. But in any
event, we'll see you back here as the microchip
ordains. So bye.