Startup Cortical Labs has announced the establishment of two small facilities in Melbourne and Singapore to house its CL1 biocomputers, which operate on lab-grown neurons. This was reported by Bloomberg.
The biocomputers are placed on specialized silicon chips that send electrical impulses to the biological tissue and record the responses. The software interacts with the cells, interpreting their activity as computational results.
Essentially, the startup is creating a hybrid system where living tissue acts as a processor. Cortical Labs refers to the infrastructure with these devices as "data centers."
Advantages and Energy Efficiency
According to the developers, the main advantage of this approach is its extremely low energy consumption: neurons use significantly less energy compared to traditional AI processors.
Founder and CEO Hong Weng Chong noted that each CL1 unit consumes less power than a pocket calculator. The Melbourne facility is expected to house around 120 CL1 modules, while Singapore will accommodate up to 1,000.
Previously, Cortical Labs reported that they trained the CL1 to play Pong and interact with the game Doom.
In August 2024, Swiss company FinalSpark created a computer architecture from human brain organoids. The company rents out its capabilities to researchers for $500 a month.
Before that, Chinese scientists developed a robot with a lab-grown artificial brain capable of learning to perform various tasks.