In a jaw-dropping development, a Swiss company called Final Spark has created a groundbreaking biocomputer dubbed the Neuroplatform. This unusual device integrates miniature human brains—grown in labs—from stem cells with traditional electronic circuits, promising a staggering energy efficiency boost compared to standard computers. Despite its potential to revolutionize technology, there’s a haunting catch: these lab-grown brains frequently die out, necessitating constant replacement. The Neuroplatform uses a reward-and-punishment system to train these brain organoids, offering dopamine as a reward and chaotic stimuli as punishment to optimize their performance. While it raises ethical concerns about exploiting living tissues for technology, Final Spark touts its creation as a solution to the energy-intensive demands of AI and computing.
When beginning this research, the concept seemed almost unbelievable. A Swiss company called “Final Spark” has developed an unusual hybrid biocomputer that integrates lab-grown miniature human brains with traditional electronic circuits. This innovative approach drastically reduces energy consumption compared to conventional computers. However, a significant challenge arises: the lab-grown miniature human brains deteriorate and expire over time, necessitating continuous replacement with new ones.
The system relies on 16 spherical brain “organoids” created from stem cells derived from human skin tissue. While this scenario might appear reminiscent of a plot from a science fiction film, it is indeed unfolding in reality.
Final Spark scientists call their hybrid computer “the Neuroplatform” and claim it utilizes “a fraction of the energy required to power a traditional setup”…
Swiss tech startup FinalSpark is now selling access to biocomputers that combine up to four tiny lab-grown human brains with silicon chips.
This new bioprocessing platform called the Neuroplatform, uses small versions of human brains to do computer work instead of silicon chips. The company says it can fit 16 of these mini-brains onto the Neuroplatform and use a fraction of the energy required to power a traditional setup.
The platform, currently adopted by nine institutions, integrates hardware, software, and biology to construct a processing system that is energy-efficient and high-performing.
This “breakthrough” is being touted as a means to save massive amounts of energy.
But what about the lab-grown human brains that are being exploited to power the Neuroplatform?
The 16 mini-brains contain around 10,000 functioning neurons and are powered by a “microfluidics system that supplies water and nutrients for the cells”…
Rather than merely integrating biological concepts into computing, FinalSpark’s online platform ‘taps’ into spherical clusters of lab-grown human brain cells called organoids. A total of 16 organoids are housed within four arrays that connect to eight electrodes each and a microfluidics system that supplies water and nutrients for the cells.
The approach, known as wetware computing, in this case, harnesses researchers’ abilities to culture organoids in the lab, a fairly new technology that allows scientists to study what are essentially mini replicas of individual organs.
Mini-brains are educated to do certain tasks through a reward and punishment system.
Researchers do this by training the organoids through a reward system. The organoids are rewarded with dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure (and addiction).
Meanwhile, as “punishment,” the organoids are exposed to chaotic stimuli, such as irregular electrical activity.
If the enslaved mini-brains complete their tasks, they are rewarded with a lot of joy.
If the enslaved mini-brains do not accomplish what they are intended to do, they experience a lot of “irregular electrical activity”.
In other words, these small human brains are tortured until they learn to comply.
You should feel sick after reading it.
What these scientists are doing is extremely terrible.
Final Spark claims that small human brains consume “a million times less power than their silicon counterparts”…
Swiss technology firm Final Spark has successfully launched Neuroplatform, the world’s first bioprocessing platform where human brain organoids (lab-grown miniaturized versions of organs) perform computational tasks instead of silicon chips.
The first such facility hosts the processing prowess of 16 brain organoids, which the company claims uses a million times less power than their silicon counterparts.
Final Spark promises that their new “technology” will be the key energy source for the AI revolution.
Training AI models requires significant amounts of conventional energy.
According to Final Spark’s estimates, training the popular large language model GPT-3 that powered ChatGPT in its initial days alone consumed 10 GWh of energy. This is a whopping 6,000 times more energy than an average European city consumes in an entire year.
Replacing silicon chips with bioprocessors could lead to drastic energy savings. Final Spark allows research labs to experience the power of biological processors on the Neuroplatform.
For many folks out there, this will sound fantastic.
Final Spark claims that the processor it has designed will consume a million times less energy than a standard silicon chip.
There is only one major difficulty.
Mini-brains continue to die and must be replaced regularly.
Initially, they would perish within hours, but now they can live for up to 100 days.
Final Spark faced many challenges in its early years since the organoids would die in just a few hours. The company has worked on this shortcoming and improved its MEA systems to ensure that organoids live for 100 days.
These “organoids” are being worked to death.
They are connected to electrodes and work until they cannot work anymore.
Final Spark has made working these varied components possible through an innovative setup called Multi-Electrode Arrays (MEAs), where the three-dimensional masses of brain tissue are placed.
Each MEA has four brain organoids that interface with eight electrodes. These electrodes perform the dual role of stimulating the organoids and recording the data they process.
Data transfer is done through digital analog converters with a 16-bit resolution and a 30 kHz frequency. A microfluidic system provides life support for the MEAs, and cameras can monitor their overall operation.
Have you ever watched “The Matrix”?
As I delved into this research, echoes of that film came to mind.
Similar to the movie, human energy fuels the entire system.
And akin to the film’s premise, those providing the energy are essentially enslaved.
The creators of “The Neuroplatform” argue that this is acceptable because the mini-brains lack sentience.
Regardless of the validity of that claim, their actions remain ethically questionable.
While harnessing miniature human brains to power a computer could significantly reduce energy consumption, it also starkly highlights the moral dilemmas facing our society.
We are crossing boundaries that should never be crossed, and ultimately, there will be severe consequences for the ethical lapses committed by our scientists.
Watch the video below:
Last year, GreatGameIndia reported that researchers from Indiana University introduced a breakthrough cyber neural network in a study published in the journal Nature Electronics. The network utilizes living brain tissue powered by stem cells.