World's first commercial biological computer is here, powered by human brain cells

I'd say "fascinating", but someone might hit me. In truth though, it is. I do share the serious ethical concerns this engenders. 

The Swiss appear to be ahead (no pun intended) in the field. I decided to search after reading the article you linked, and found this

piece about FinalSpark:

"FinalSpark's Neuroplatform allows researchers worldwide to conduct remote experiments with their cerebral organoids. Over the past three years, this platform has been used with more than 1000 organoids, collecting 18 terabytes of data." - Cédric Depond

While it doesn't compete with AI, which has ethical concerns as well, the use of human organoids in large numbers raises the question of whether consciousness can occur, and what should be the limitations to prevent such an occurrence. It would be a rather terrible form of slavery, I believe.

The Final Spark article talks about the reduced amount of energy (electricity) required, as compared to traditional AI systems. This is very impressive, but as you say, ethical considerations are indeed controversial. It's also interesting that this research is taking place outside of the USA, by the Swiss and Aussie's.

Is this a real image of the machine, or an artists concept?

Quoting pelaird, reply 2

The Final Spark article talks about the reduced amount of energy (electricity) required, as compared to traditional AI systems. This is very impressive, but as you say, ethical considerations are indeed controversial. It's also interesting that this research is taking place outside of the USA, by the Swiss and Aussie's.



Is this a real image of the machine, or an artists concept?

Lol. That is an AI rendering (delicious irony, no?) of the concept of the brain cell organelles. They are cell clusters in a nutrient solution, in actuality.

That's what I thought. It looks like something out of a SciFi movie, just very disturbing! There should have been caption for this image explaining that it was an AI rendering.

Agreed. Any illustration should be credited. That article was based on this one: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/artificial-intelligence/articles/10.3389/frai.2024.1376042/full#fig1

Look at figure 1 in that article because that's the structure of the processor.

OMG!!!! NO THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the link. This development could become the future of medical breakthroughs for curing diseases and creation of new antibiotics. It also could mean more rapid response to future pandemics, which are sure to arise.

It already is being used to test drugs to treat Alzheimer's and neurodevelopmental diseases, as well as the development of various cells types composing the brain.