Organoid Intelligence: The brain in a petri dish that might empower AI

Scientists are exploring the possibility of AI using tiny lab-grown organs instead of computers to enhance its performance by being capable of replicating brain-like structures. This is called Organoid Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence is one of the most commented on technological revolutions at the moment. However, Organoid Intelligence could take AI even further.

Organoids are lab-grown tissues that resemble organs. They generally derive from stem cells and have been used for almost 20 years.

Usually, organoids are used for experiments in lieu of real-life kidneys, lungs and other organs in order to avoid potentially harmful testing on humans and animals.

Disappointingly, CNN explains that brain organoids don’t look like actually tiny versions of human brains.

Roughly the size of a pen dot, these cell cultures contain neurons that are capable of brain-like functions, forming connections.

Pictured: Organoids in a petri dish

However, the idea of making brain-like organoids that mimic the complex structures of the mind is still very recent and theoretical.

According to CNN, scientists claim that this “intelligence in a dish” can provide insight into the human brain and help to treat Alzheimer’s, among other neurological diseases.

Not only that but these “biocomputers” could change the world of AI forever.

Image: Pixabay

“Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling,” said Dr. Thomas Hartung, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to CNN.

“Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits,” the Johns Hopkins professor remarked.

Hartung was part of the team that published on Frontiers of Science the study titled ‘Organoid intelligence (OI): the new frontier in biocomputing and intelligence-in-a-dish’, outlining the possibilities of this new field of study.

The article also highlights the uniqueness of our minds: “Human brains are slower than machines at processing simple information, such as arithmetic, but they far surpass machines in processing complex information as brains deal better with few and/or uncertain data.”

The team behind the Frontiers of Science article doesn’t shy away from the ethical implications of blurring the line between human and machine, either.

“We have partnered with ethicists from the very beginning to establish an ‘embedded ethics’ approach. All ethical issues will be continuously assessed by teams made up of scientists, ethicists and the public, as the research evolves,” Hartung was quoted saying by CNN.

CNN also cited Julian Kinderlerer, professor emeritus at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, who argues that it’s important to deal with the ethical ramifications of scientific experiments in order to set boundaries for such works.

“We are entering a new world, where the interface between humans and human constructs blurs distinctions,” Kinderlerer argues.

Image: Pixabay