In a lab in the scenic Swiss town of Vevey, a scientist nourishes small clusters of human brain cells with a nutrient-rich solution to keep them alive.
Mini-brains must stay healthy to process information, since unlike laptops, they can’t reboot once they die.
This new field, called biocomputing or “wetware,” aims to harness the brain’s natural processing power.
Brain-Cell Processors as the Future of AI
At Swiss start-up FinalSpark, co-founder Fred Jordan told AFP he believes brain-cell processors could one day replace silicon chips powering AI.
While today’s AI relies on semiconductors to mimic neurons, Jordan argues: “Instead of copying, let’s use the real thing.”
Biocomputing may also curb AI’s massive energy use, which threatens climate goals. Biological neurons work a million times more efficiently than artificial ones and reproduce endlessly in labs, unlike limited AI chips.
For now, wetware’s computing abilities remain far from rivaling the hardware that powers today’s world.
To create its “bioprocessors,” FinalSpark begins by acquiring stem cells, originally derived from donated human skin cells. These versatile cells can develop into any type of cell in the body.
The team then converts them into neurons and groups them into millimeter-sized clusters called brain organoids—about the size of a fruit fly larva’s brain, Jordan said.
Turning Neural Activity into Binary Signals
In the lab, scientists connect electrodes to these organoids and monitor their internal activity. By stimulating organoids with tiny electrical currents, scientists can measure their activity as a biological version of binary ones and zeroes.
Ten universities are testing FinalSpark’s organoids, and the company streams live neuron activity on its website.
At the University of Bristol, Benjamin Ward-Cherrier used an organoid to power a robot that recognized braille letters, though encoding and decoding data remain major challenges.
The Fragility of Living Processors
“Working with robots is much easier,” he joked, adding that because the organoids are living cells, they eventually die. In fact, one of his experiments ended midway when the organoid died, forcing his team to start over. According to FinalSpark, they can survive up to six months.
In the U.S., Johns Hopkins researcher Lena Smirnova uses organoids to study autism and Alzheimer’s in search of new treatments.
She told AFP that while biocomputing remains “pie in the sky” compared to its more immediate biomedical applications, the field could transform dramatically within the next two decades.
AFP’s sources dismissed fears that organoids could develop consciousness.
Ethical Boundaries and Biological Limits
Jordan noted the issue borders on philosophy, hence FinalSpark’s work with ethicists. He stressed that organoids lack pain receptors and have only about 10,000 neurons compared to the brain’s 100 billion.
Still, much about consciousness remains unknown, and Ward-Cherrier hopes biocomputing will reveal more about brain function.
In the lab, Jordan shows a fridge-like unit with 16 organoids in tubes, their neural activity spiking on a nearby screen.
The brain cells have no known means of sensing the door being opened, yet scientists have spent years trying to uncover the cause.
“We still don’t know how they perceive it,” Jordan admitted.
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