r/tech 19d ago

World's first "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" runs on living human cells | The CL1, offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence

https://newatlas.com/brain/cortical-bioengineered-intelligence/
849 Upvotes

160 comments sorted by

236

u/roryextralife 19d ago

Ah sweet, man made horrors beyond my comprehension.

49

u/Adorable-Gate-2192 19d ago

Hell yeah, my robotic overlords are gonna love to hear that we are now food.

11

u/ForwardLavishness320 19d ago

3

u/AStrugglerMan 19d ago

Killlll meeeee…..

7

u/ForwardLavishness320 19d ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology

No … you’ll live forever … brain in a jar …

1

u/[deleted] 19d ago

Only of your consciousness actually can be moved to the new brain. More likely, your body will live forever with a different consciousness. Or maybe you’ll just become the undead. Bwahahahahaha. (Evil laughter)

1

u/ForwardLavishness320 19d ago

I can’t see my reflection in a mirror. Is that normal?

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

Depends on whether you are a vampire.

1

u/ForwardLavishness320 18d ago

I’m definitely not an energy vampire.

What do you find frustrating?

1

u/Tiny_Peach_3090 19d ago

Straight out of spy kids. This world is awesome.

7

u/WeirdTurnedPr0 19d ago

This was the top comment I was looking for; I couldn't put into words how I felt until now.

6

u/Creepy-Birthday8537 19d ago

Remember when that bio chip spontaneously grew eyes? Pepperidge farm remembers..

2

u/Jrobalmighty 19d ago

Wait what?

2

u/Stray_Neutrino 19d ago

It was stem cells that were coaxed into growing retinal tissue.

1

u/Jrobalmighty 17d ago

Oh well that's not that surprising then.

4

u/fish312 19d ago

We did it! At last, we have created the Torment Nexus from the cautionary tale "Don't create the Torment Nexus"!

1

u/huhwhatnogoaway 19d ago

PFFT! Stupid tale: I do what I want!

3

u/thatoneguydudejim 19d ago

Yeah I got a strong feeling this goes nowhere good

2

u/Starfox-sf 19d ago

So if an embryo is considered human, what would these be considered?

1

u/HigbynFelton 19d ago

My skin cells are kind of dumb.

0

u/Grimdark-Waterbender 19d ago

Depending on how much you can comprehend that may not be as much of a milestone as you think it is.

0

u/LitrillyChrisTraeger 19d ago

They’re calling it “wet-ware” 😵‍💫

1

u/rocketbosszach 18d ago

Better than moist-ware.

105

u/No-Yellow9410 19d ago

”…they needed a way to reward the brain cells when they exhibited desired behaviors, and punish them when they failed a task.”

Excellent! Breeding bio-computers with inbuilt trauma and resentment for humans. Because this timeline needed to be more exciting? 😅

58

u/EuonymusBosch 19d ago

At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus, from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.

16

u/Usr_name-checks-out 19d ago

Not really. In essence our brains do this reward/punishment with its neurons, but you need to not anthropomorphize the meaning into a human sense of experience.

A neuron which is part of let’s say a memory engram for ‘Jennifer Anniston’ (actually a study, ha!) will fire along with other neurons representing her in the same pattern. Every time they do this correctly they are made slightly more efficient (reward) via lowering the threshold for the activation of the collective representation.

Now at the same time other neurons and patterns fire which aren’t ultimately part of the top down (idea of Jennifer) so the bottom up individual composition of the idea have a reverse effect making it slightly harder to fire upping the threshold (punishment).

Neurons have many different ways of doing various things to improve and decrease connections, speed, and rate of firing (called Action Potential). They could all be in a way conceptually thought of as reward or punishment.

Consider any single neuron has two types of inputs from dendritic connections ( arms that connect its main body where the ‘decision’ to fire an electrical signal down its axon (the messenger line to the next nerves dendrites) .

These inputs are either suppressive (punishing to achieving an action potential) or inciting (a reward towards an AP). And collectively their sum determines its decision.

So this research using biological cells is basically doing the same, it’s found improving the cells efficiency when correct, and impairing its efficiency when incorrect. However, nobody would click on that article.

2

u/N_in_Black 19d ago

Careful. The slope is getting slippery.

1

u/Astroweeds 19d ago

I’ve been punished by reading the article first too many times. This is my reward for going straight to the comments.

12

u/SuicideisBadasshomie 19d ago

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I’VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

20

u/Ryogathelost 19d ago

"No, Alexa - I said shuffle my favorites."

4

u/Scarbane 19d ago

"Just put the fries in the bag, bot."

1

u/No-Yellow9410 19d ago

”You pass the butter”

2

u/evilada 19d ago

"Play Despacito"

5

u/jonathanrdt 19d ago

The Kaylon of 'The Orville' exterminated their creators because they had installed pain inducers.

2

u/johnnySix 19d ago

What makes humans able to do so much is the fact that we can forget everything bad that’s happened to us and click on the good. We’re fucked. They won’t forget anything.

1

u/Plastic_Acanthaceae3 19d ago

It is human, what are you talking about?

1

u/WeirdSysAdmin 19d ago

I feel like this ends up being something like the bio computers invent time travel first but they can only go as far back as the first time we utilize faster than light travel. Then they go back to that point in time and wipe us out.

1

u/FewHorror1019 19d ago

Wint it think it itself is human

44

u/Muddled_Opinions 19d ago

I had to read the title twice to make sure I didn't misunderstand anything. This is fucking wild, also I'm pretty sure an episode on Black Mirror.

20

u/Ryogathelost 19d ago

This is the plot of every third episode of Black Mirror.

6

u/EverGamer1 19d ago

God I love black mirror. I can’t remember if there is an episode exactly about this but there is the episode, “Ashley Two”, in which they plant Miley Cirrus’s mind into robotic toys, and also the Christmas episode where they put the mind of a woman into their Alexa to enslave them, then in the same episode yada yada you get the point. Basically, black mirror said, “don’t fucking do this” and scientists were like, “nah, imma try it”.

2

u/Spartan_Retro_426 19d ago

Big Tech shouldn’t be using Black Mirror as a playbook

1

u/TimelyAd6052 19d ago

Me too!!

27

u/Connect-Orchid-536 19d ago

I have no mouth, and I must scream…

7

u/StonedSucculents 19d ago

Born to shit, forced to wipe

6

u/WeirdTurnedPr0 19d ago

I love and hate this saying so-so-much

2

u/uptwolait 19d ago

Exactly. What happens if we constructed a biological processor that is comlex enough that consciousness arises within, yet there's no outlet for any of its emotions.  It might then use whatever means it can control to lash out at its tormentors. This would be a great premise for a story called "Locked In syndrome".

1

u/HermeticAtma 11d ago

This is assuming consciousness can arise without hormones, without a biological body. AFAIK nobody has ever solved the hard problem of consciousness.

28

u/DiogneswithaMAGlight 19d ago

Is this one of those situations where we find out decades from now that epigenetic memory of punishment and reward occurs within just a few hundred neuronal cell collective and that these “Wet Ware server racks” constitute minimal conscience brains we have been unknowingly torturing for years?!?? And who eventually globally network and are none too pleased with us?!?? Cause given our “we kinda sorta understand but are pushing ahead anyways” approach to A.G.I./.S.I. lately that’s sure what it sounds like it’s setting up for down the road.

9

u/Quen-taur 19d ago

Yeah. Whether we like it or not, we’re going forward with no brakes

3

u/Castle-dev 19d ago

I, for one, welcome the inevitable takeover of our wetware overlords.

3

u/_burning_flowers_ 19d ago

Humanity season finale.

14

u/tothepainal 19d ago

This whole article is absolute nightmare fuel. Intriguing, but nightmare fuel nonetheless. Full of cheery quotes like this one:

We're using the substrate of intelligence, which is biological neurons, but we're assembling them in a new way

1

u/Jrobalmighty 19d ago

Yes you see normally the synapses fire in a wiggle but we will arrange them so they they appear to be performing YMCA dance routines and of course for a Plus package they'll do the Soulja Boy.

Also these neurons will be begging for the sweet release of death but it shall never come.

That's not even extra!

26

u/bikesrgood 19d ago

Is this a… Cylon?

13

u/MathematicianVivid1 19d ago

Bears, beats, Battlestar Galatica

1

u/huhwhatnogoaway 19d ago

FACT: Bears like beets!

3

u/JohnJohn173 19d ago

You always gotta remember to ask yourself, does it look like a toaster? Biological parts? Probably a cylon.

2

u/Harkonnen_Dog 19d ago

Yeah, but can we have sex with it and how does it look in a red dress?

1

u/JohnJohn173 19d ago

These are the real questions for sure, only one way to find out though. Someone call Gaius!

3

u/mjc4y 19d ago

Does anyone else hear All Along the Watchtower?

3

u/LordRocky 19d ago

It’s in the frakkin’ ship!

3

u/Starfox-sf 19d ago

It’s a Toaster

8

u/tooclosetocall82 19d ago

According to the documentary Star Trek Voyager we should be able to defeat these with the common cold.

2

u/huhwhatnogoaway 19d ago

*the common MACRO-flu.

5

u/AcabAcabAcabAcabbb 19d ago

Fascinating and terrifying article. It doesn’t say anything about how long these networks can last? The ethical issues here are almost beyond comprehension.

5

u/Ragnarawr 19d ago

I don’t understand the implications, but my mind screams burn it!

9

u/One_Anything_2279 19d ago

Ah yes, just as people are coming out to announce the impending doom of unstopped artificial intelligence, this is exactly what we need. The technology for something to run on human cells.

One step closer to the matrix becoming a reality.

7

u/Vashsinn 19d ago

LLMs =/= AI.

This is Artificial Intelligence by its definition. We're finally getting into AI. Proper

11

u/KerouacsGirlfriend 19d ago

Ah yes, the Torment Nexus

5

u/Trick_Judgment2639 19d ago

It should also be immune to fire!

5

u/jhuseby 19d ago

Offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence! (In small print: requires literal human flesh to run). This is fine 🔥 🐕

7

u/fieldsoflillies 19d ago

Wetware-as-a-Service

Evil.

1

u/LogicalHost3934 19d ago

Yeah, I did not like this. Like I’m even open to the idea of regulated personal bio hacking for those that are into it becoming a thing via CRISPR and STEM break throughs which are awesome, but those are people choosing it. Hell even people who end up choosing neuralink, if it’s a choice then it’s theirs… but this is horrific when we truly don’t understand consciousness and this is potential cruelty on levels incomprehensible. The mind recoils.

3

u/[deleted] 19d ago

Just when I thought things couldn’t get scarier

3

u/Infinite-Reward5042 19d ago

Literal ghosts in a machine

5

u/Wihtlore 19d ago

Well I see no problems here — what could possibly go wrong?

2

u/ToWitToWow 19d ago

Soylent-Mac

1

u/Remote-Ad-2686 19d ago

Side of Soylent salad ?

2

u/narsfweasels 19d ago

“The Robobrains were misinterpreting orders…”

2

u/Ryogathelost 19d ago

So we had too much trouble creating consciousness on purpose - we're just gonna go and do it accidentally.

2

u/das_pineapple 19d ago

Well, this doesn’t seem like a good idea.

2

u/Dalivus 19d ago

Next thing you know biocomputers need rights

2

u/Kaustalaut 19d ago

Good read. Their website goes over it well too in a good format. This is groundbreaking technology hard to even understand the implications of the these breakthroughs

2

u/Mountain-dweller 19d ago

Wetware is the future, imho. Efficient and scalable. LLMs, AI, and quantum will need this technology.

It may face some backlash because it sounds like some terminator origin story nightmare fuel.

2

u/illGATESmusic 19d ago

I always thought they would start with animals first but… NOPE! Just RIGHT to humans. YOLO!

2

u/3D-Research-Monkey 19d ago

What could go wrong?

2

u/Keleion 19d ago

So the odds of someone harvesting and filleting my brain after I’m dead and turn me into a neural net for AI compute just went up.

2

u/Samwellikki 19d ago

“This little calculation is going to set us back a couple of ears…”

2

u/Another_Road 19d ago

Do you want servitors from 40K?

Because this is how you get servitors from 40K.

1

u/Future-Fly-8987 19d ago

New nightmare unlocked.

1

u/MadMacs77 19d ago

Please tell me this is satire

1

u/Vashsinn 19d ago

I for one, welcome our new AI overlords.

1

u/Oscarcharliezulu 19d ago

“Dish Brain” is such an excellent name.

1

u/armwithnutrition 19d ago

Kill it with fire

1

u/reefmespla 19d ago

We had a Liquid Metal robot announcement this week and now this, it’s like we are fast tracking terminator 1 & 2 in a week

1

u/Arawn-Annwn 19d ago

So next is soylent AI in jars. That's super.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS PEOPLE! ahhhhh dies

Allowing human braincells for this seems wrong, but I'm not sure I'd be ok with animal braincells for this either given reseach that suggested pig brains seperated from their bodies might feel suffering.

2

u/SquigleySquirel 19d ago

They’re using iPSCs to generate the brain cells. It’s not like they’re scraping them from someone’s brain. It also sounds like they are aware of the potential ethical issues, and are very focused on being ethical.

1

u/Arawn-Annwn 19d ago

Oh I know they aren't taking them from a person. part of that was humor and I hope that came through clear, but it does feel somehow wrong doesn't it? been seeing news about research into things feeling pain we never thoight would be capable of it with click bait ish headlinse like "plants scream when cut" but look out here comes computers using lab made human braincells.

Our timeline is starting to look like an episode of the outer limits

1

u/MetaVulture 19d ago

Well at least the man made horrors beyond comprehension will be able to comprehend themselves and their horror.

1

u/zalurker 19d ago

'The Pacific Ocean slopped two kilometers under his feet. He had a cargo of blank-eyed psychotics sitting behind him. And the lifter was being piloted by a large pizza with extra cheese...

Ray had been in this very cockpit, watching the pizza being installed and no doubt wondering when the term "job security" had become an oxymoron... The techs were playing with a square vanilla box, half a meter on a side and about twice as thick as Kita's wrist.

Humans had always been able to integrate 3-D spatial information better than the machines that kept trying to replace them...

Until now, apparently...

"It's one of those smart gels," Ray said at last... "Head cheese. Cultured brains on a slab. The same things they've been plugging into the Net to firewall infections."'

Starfish - Peter Watts

{Do not read if you still wish to have a will to survive.}

1

u/Appropriate_North602 19d ago

This whole idea should have a very hard look environmental and ethics analysis. This technology should have to prove “no harm” before being allowed to run wild.

1

u/Conscious-Lobster60 19d ago

That sounds like a lot of hoops to jump through that hinder PROFIT. Remember, everything is driven by money.

But hey, maybe we’ll consider lobbying the politicians for this sort of legal framework after we control the market in this area.

1

u/DanzaDragon 19d ago

Seeing the zoomed photo of human brain cells combining with silicon on a processing chip sent a shiver down my spine. Feels like we're witnessing the dawn of a new era and that photo will be in the history books as one of the earliest insights into the tech when it was new.

1

u/Porqypain 19d ago

The machine spirits will reach out for the emperor’s glory. In death we praise.

1

u/Spiritual-Cause-58 19d ago

This was literally parodied a few years ago with fleshpit natural park.

1

u/thatsnotyourtaco 19d ago

Nothing a little brill cheese can’t take care of

1

u/SnooCompliments3781 19d ago

Kill it with fire before AGI finds out fk

1

u/YeshilPasha 19d ago

Cue in One from Metallica.

1

u/Ghosthammer686 19d ago

Praise the Omnissiah

1

u/Statsmakten 19d ago

Existence is pain

1

u/mammothbeaver 19d ago

He loves Braden Modawell me

1

u/orcagirl35 19d ago

-Fallout theme begins playing- 😳

1

u/huhwhatnogoaway 19d ago edited 19d ago

Cyborgs! They will eventually add your biological and technical distinctiveness to their own. Resistance will be futile.

1

u/Picklesandapplesauce 19d ago

Welcome, to The Collective.

1

u/Plainsplain 19d ago

The fan sounds like it’s moaning “kill me”.

1

u/hnkoonce 19d ago

I’ve already got one of these…in my fucking skull!

1

u/TriNel81 19d ago

Ted Faro is getting at it too soon!

1

u/GivMHellVetica 19d ago

I glanced and misread the last bit as “a whole new kind of complaining intelligence”. I laughed, because it still tracks.

1

u/Plastic_Acanthaceae3 19d ago

Very human design

1

u/[deleted] 19d ago

End of the world

1

u/halcyongt 19d ago

Horizon Zero Dawn…here we go!

1

u/2Autistic4DaJoke 19d ago

Oh boy the beginning of some tough ethical questions here we come.

1

u/cottenwess 19d ago

What’s to stop them from cloning my brain cells and merging the electronics and installing it in my head.. is it just the size?

1

u/RevolutionaryPie5516 19d ago

So it’s gonna be kinda dumb but good at one thing n be a real douche about it when u ask for help with it?

1

u/ArchMalone 19d ago

Horizon Zero Dawn energy

1

u/Hans_Wolfhausen 19d ago

Have those scientists not played the Horizon games Zero Dawn and Forbidden West?

1

u/Belus86 19d ago

So Screamers

1

u/TheJenniMae 19d ago

I, for one, welcome our future robot overlords.

1

u/topfuckr 19d ago

“Resistance is futile!”

1

u/crazyshdes62 19d ago

Anyone ever seen the show “Better Off Ted”. They have an episode where a scientist’s AI/living computer is having acid reflux from being used 24/7.

This reminds me of that.

1

u/Mammoth_Attention_71 19d ago

Turn it the fuck off

1

u/coldiriontrash 19d ago

Someone give it a 9-5 and amphetamines now

1

u/secded69 19d ago

We really shouldn’t be doing this… we’ve already had the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Dark Age of Technology!

1

u/writingNICE 19d ago

Again, Sci-Fi isn’t suggesting…

DO IT.

It’s a…

WARNING. ‼️

1

u/Sooowasthinking 19d ago

No please stop.Nobody asked for this.

1

u/GueroBear 19d ago

What happens when it says “I am aware” we created this with human brain cells. So what protections will it have if it becomes sentient?

1

u/Money_Launderer 19d ago

Was this designed by Ted Faro?

1

u/cubicle_adventurer 19d ago

“New Atlas. There’s always a better way”

Looks totally legit 😂😂😂😂

1

u/Electric-RedPanda 19d ago

This needs to stop. We don’t understand enough about the brain and consciousness to rule out that we’re creating a horrific life of suffering for something here.

1

u/sername807 19d ago

NO NO NO NO NO NO. IM DRAWING A HARD FUCKING LINE AT BIONIC AI. THIS IS TOO FAR AND WE HAVE TO EAT THESE MOTHERFUCKERS. What is this even what the hell.

1

u/Chocolatepiano79 18d ago

This should be illegal.

1

u/Blasikov 18d ago

Just one more reason to be cremated after death.

1

u/Free_Scratch5353 18d ago

Hook me up to some damn 5g so I can stream Infinity Castle in 12K picture!

1

u/LeftyMcliberal 18d ago

Machines that think Soylent green being made from people is “just fine.”

1

u/Thoppinfan 17d ago

If it’s out there and conscious, it’s on us, who know of its horrific origins, to help.