Human Brain Chip Gets Military Funding

Monash University scientists created the “DishBrain,” a semi-biological computer chip embedded with 800,000 human and mouse brain cells. The chip demonstrated sentience by learning to play Pong within five minutes. The brain cells could sense and respond to electrical stimuli, allowing the researchers to set up a basic-reward system for the cells during the game. The success of the experiment led to a US$407,000 grant from Australia’s National Intelligence and Security Discovery Research Grants program.

The project aims to develop programmable chips that combine biological computing with artificial intelligence, potentially surpassing existing silicon-based hardware. These chips could revolutionize machine learning and find applications in planning, robotics, brain-machine interfaces, drug discovery, autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots. The technology promises machines with advanced learning capabilities, adaptability to change, and continuous self-optimization of computing power, memory, and energy usage. The grant will be used to develop AI machines that replicate the learning capacity of biological neural networks, with the goal of making them a viable replacement for traditional silicon-based computing.