Скачать или смотреть Scientists have created a computer chip with human brain cells - it has shown the ability to learn

Scientists at Monash University have created DishBrain, a semi-biological computer chip with around 800,000 human and mouse brain cells integrated into its electrodes. Demonstrating something of a mind of its own, it learned to play Pong in five minutes.

The array of microelectrodes at the heart of DishBrain can not only read activity in brain cells but also stimulate them with electrical signals, so the research team created a version of Pong in which the semi-biological artificial brain cells received information about the movement of the ball and could influence the racket by moving it left and right.

A very simple stimulation system was then developed that exploited the tendency of small clusters of brain cells to minimize the unpredictability of their environment. If the racket hits the ball, the cells are rewarded with a predictable stimulus, and if it misses, they receive four seconds of unpredictable exposure. This is the first time that brain cells grown in the lab have been given the ability to not only experience the world but also to influence it, and the results have been impressive.