1 yr. ago • 96%

Computer chip with built-in human brain tissue gets military funding

newatlas.com Computer chip with built-in human brain tissue gets military funding

Last year, Monash University scientists created the "DishBrain" – a semi-biological computer chip with some 800,000 human and mouse brain cells lab-grown into its electrodes. Demonstrating something like sentience, it learned to play Pong within five minutes.

55 comments

If abortion is banned because a cell cluster is human, this should be banned too

42
- As if it ever was about the cluster of cells and not the oppression of others...
  
  48
  
  But now we can technologically enforce the oppression! Isn't that great? You'll be implanted with the birthwisher 4000 so you won't even know, that you don't want to carry the product of rape in your womb!
  
  6
- I think a large number of conservative Christians would find this abhorrent, but they are unlikely to know about it. If their sources do report on it the democrats will likely be blamed.
  
  9
- @neko @boem The fetus cluster has the potential of developing into a human, if left alone in the womb. A brain cell does not AFAIK.
  
  -12
  
  It also has the potential of hurting the potential mother long-term.
  
  9
Killbot industry: "We would never let a machine make the final decision. There'll always be a human element involved"

Human element:

37
- The homeopathy of ethical compliance
  
  13
So if the paddle hit the ball, the cells would receive a nice, predictable stimulus. But if it missed, the cells would get four seconds of totally unpredictable stimulation.

Ah yes, my second step after building biological AI is definitely "torture it". This is sure to end well.

Dudun Dun Dudum. Dudun Dun Dudum.

23
The DishBrain's advanced learning capabilities, in other words, could underpin a new generation of machine learning, particularly when embodied in autonomous vehicles, drones, and robots. It could give them, says Razi, "a new type of machine intelligence that is able to learn throughout its lifetime."

literally motherfucking cylons, y'all

19
- Keep them toasters outta my car!
  
  2
This is fine

15
Aw sweet, man made horrors beyond my comprehension.

14
I feel like this was the origin story for the computer in I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

13
- It’s more like the origin story for the Cymeks in Dune. Although they were at least human once.
  
  People worry about AI taking over the world when it will probably be human machine hybrids deciding ‘yeah fuck humans’ in their giant killer Mechs.
  
  1
This has both more potential and more pure horror than any of the bland AI stuff we've been obsessing over.

13
I still feel that silicone is more reliable than dealing with organic matter that can die.

How do they keep it alive. Do you need to feed it or keep it in special conditions? With time, as the cells age, would you lose performance?

11
- Once a bunch of nuclear warheads enter puberty we’re all fucked.
  
  8
Why can't we get Jurassic Park before biological AI?

11
- Dinosaurs, while neat, do not bring sufficient profits for the offense industry.
  
  10
  
  I'd like to see how the Russians handle raptors.
  
  1
That's why we need science fiction, to not be afraid of all the abhorrent and abhorrently efficient weapons the future holds for us.

And yes, Star Wars is a very perceptive choice of name on part of George Lucas.

The scary part is that we all sit on our sweaty bottoms while such things are being developed not by bad guys and good guys to fight each other over us, but by bad guys and bad guys to fight each other over us.

8
- idk man, at no point do any two or more stars fight each other /s
  
  4
I'm so glad I just ordered all of those sweet Cronenburg shirts

6
of course the military is interested in this... god.

6
I'm pretty sure if you just search the term "cyberpunk" you'd find at least five stories that start like this.

5
I wonder, at the point where it’s neurons making up a very small piece of tissue, what benefit human cells give over something like a pig (the article does say human and mouse, but still).

4
We're really trying to find a way to boost LLM performance, huh

4
Great, but concerning...

I'm aware that we're currently capable of reading the mind to some limited extent, using MRI-like machines and machine learning models trained on certain brain signals, but being able to literally utilise a brain for 'arbitrary' processing is on another level entirely 😳

I wonder what else this is capable of doing or running, and the expected shelf life in particular, seeing as it's basically biological matter that I'm assuming can age.

Let's hope these researchers keep things responsible and don't try to run a text generation model on it 😅 /s

3
- I don't know if you understand what military funded means... It's basically the military paying these guys to make something they can use in the military.
  
  There is no doubt in my mind at least that all cute robots, useful AI, and other new things are just the public tip of the iceberg kind of a thing, to make people think it's something positive and not be afraid.
  
  The most advanced things will be used by law enforcement and military to control and monitor the populations in secret.
  
  So while I like tech, I'm also convinced that humans are going to use it to make the planet horrible to live on, to the degree that "don't get children" is the best advice ever.
  
  5
It was scary stuff, but radically advanced. I mean, it was smashed, it didn't work, but...it gave us ideas, took us in new directions. I mean, things we would have never...All my work was based on it. -- Miles Dyson, Terminator 2: Judgement Day

3
So they want to make Servitor AI ?

2
- Praise the Omnissiah!
  
  2
Reminds me of this video

Edit: also this one

2
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/V2YDApNRK3g
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
  
  2
  
  That unfortunately won't play the video in Firefox for Android. (At least not for me).
  
  1
My name is Alex James Murphy

2
- That was kinda the other way round. But it's set in 2028... So maybe.
  
  1
All I hear is “brainzzzzzzzz”

2
The thought emporium has a great series of videos of the work they are doing related to this.

1
"Demonstrating something like sentience, it learned to play Pong within five minutes."

-15

You've viewed 55 comments.