Cortical Labs Raises $10M To Develop Pong Regenerative Stem Cells That Will Ultimately Power AI

Generative AI is all the rage right now, but what OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google are doing may just scratch the surface. Some processes use biology. The idea is to use stem cells to create biocomputers that are smarter and more energy efficient than what we’re used to today.

Australian startup Cortical Labs popped up on the radar after Amazon CTO Werner Vogels recently flew to Australia to visit the lab. He wrote of it as “interesting”.

Cortical combines synthetic biology and human neurons to develop what it claims is a class of AI known as “Organoid Intelligence (OI).”

It has now raised a $10 million funding round led by Horizons Ventures, LifeX (Life Extension) Ventures (which we covered last year’s launch) Blackbird Ventures, Radar Ventures and In-Q-Tel. (The CIA).

The company says orders for its technology have already been fulfilled.

How it works is that it uses clusters of neurons from lab-grown human stem cells to form what it calls a “DishBrain” and then connects it to hard silicon to create biological intelligence. Create what is called an operating system (biOS).

Some observers say this is the future of AI. Given that human neurons are self-programming and consume much less energy, they may outperform digital AI models of generalized intelligence.

Cortical Labs CEO and founder Hon Weng Chong said in a statement:

Jonathan Tam of Horizons Ventures said:

Cortical Labs’ technology first appeared in the scientific journal Neuron in October 2022, showing that neurons in petri dishes can play the computer game Pong.

This sounds trivial, but as Weng Chong told me in an email, it could enable the development and testing of new drugs and treatments. Specially tailored just for you. ”

He also says there is less competition in this area. Organoid intelligence has the potential to learn faster and with far less energy than any other AI system in existence. GPT is very smart because it embraces all of the Internet, but it doesn’t require you or me to be very conversational. ”

“It has been at least 10 years since Geoff Hinton and Alex Krizhevsky used GPUs to do deep learning. he added.

In the short term, he says, testing new drugs by effectively dripping them into cells is the immediate application. If the cells can no longer regenerate his Pong, we know the drug won’t work. We now have a potential assay of cognition in the form of neurons playing the game of Pong, which allows us to elucidate cognitive side effects (brain fog). ”

He said the technology could also be used to study dementia, and use quantum computing and generative AI to “brute force” test the compounds it discovers. ”

Further into the future, “If the number and complexity of these neurons were scaled, the end result would be something we are familiar with as fully embodied organisms such as cats, dogs, or humans.” I guess.”

Everyone, please put your hat on.