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Title: World-First Biocomputing Platform Hits the Market

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/03/2...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: In a development
straight out of science fiction, Australian startup Cortical Labs has
released what it calls the world's first code-deployable biological computer.
The CL1, which debuted in March, fuses human brain cells on a silicon chip to
process information via sub-millisecond electrical feedback loops. Designed
as a tool for neuroscience and biotech research, the CL1 offers a new way to
study how brain cells process and react to stimuli. Unlike conventional
silicon-based systems, the hybrid platform uses live human neurons capable of
adapting, learning, and responding to external inputs in real time. "On one
view, [the CL1] could be regarded as the first commercially available
biomimetic computer, the ultimate in neuromorphic computing that uses real
neurons," says theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston of University College
London. "However, the real gift of this technology is not to computer
science. Rather, it's an enabling technology that allows scientists to
perform experiments on a little synthetic brain." The first 115 units will
begin shipping this summer at $35,000 each, or $20,000 when purchased in 30-
unit server racks. Cortical Labs also offers a cloud-based "wetware-as-a-
service" at $300 weekly per unit, unlocking remote access to its in-house
cell cultures. Each CL1 contains 800,000 lab-grown human neurons,
reprogrammed from the skin or blood samples of real adult donors. The cells
remain viable for up to six months, fed by a life-support system that
supplies nutrients, controls temperature, filters waste, and maintains fluid
balance. Meanwhile, the neurons are firing and interpreting signals, adapting
from each interaction. The CL1's compact energy and hardware footprint could
make it attractive for extended experiments. A rack of CL1 units consumes 850-
1,000 watts, notably lower than the tens of kilowatts required by a data
center setup running AI workloads. "Brain cells generate small electrical
pulses to communicate to a broader network," says Cortical Labs Chief
Scientific Officer Brett Kagan. "We can do something similar by inputting
small electrical pulses representing bits of information, and then reading
their responses. The CL1 does this in real time using simple code abstracted
through multiple interacting layers of firmware and hardware. Sub-millisecond
loops read information, act on it, and write new information into the cell
culture." The company sees CL1 as foundational for testing neuropsychiatric
treatments, leveraging living cells to explore genetic and functional
differences. "It allows people to study the effects of stimulation, drugs and
synthetic lesions on how neuronal circuits learn and respond in a closed-loop
setup, when the neuronal network is in reciprocal exchange with some
simulated world," says theoretical neuroscientist Karl Friston of University
College London. "In short, experimentalists now have at hand a little 'brain
in a vat,' something philosophers have been dreaming about for decades."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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