For more than a decade, scientists have been developing artificial brain tissue, known as brain organoids, in the lab and integrating them with computer chips. A recent study in China has taken this concept further by implanting the organoid in a humanoid-like robot, providing a startling glimpse into the future of this technology.
Potential Applications for Neurological Conditions
While brain-toting robots are still a far-off concept, researchers believe organoids could help people with neurological conditions in the near future. Rather than seeing artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence as competitors, many researchers are embracing a more inclusive approach, combining both to create hybrid intelligence.
Development of Biocomputers
For years, scientists have been exploring ways to create biocomputers using brain-like tissue, or brain organoids, grown in labs and connected to computer chips. The goal is to develop a hybrid intelligence, a potentially conscious entity that leverages the strengths of both human brains and AI. Although this idea sounds like science fiction, researchers have only recently made significant progress in connecting organoids to computer chips in meaningful ways.
Milestones in Organoid Development
In 2013, scientists grew the first mini-brain in a test tube. Since then, further research has integrated these lab-grown brains with electronics. In late 2023, researchers from Indiana University Bloomington connected their “Brainoware” architecture to an AI tool. Now, researchers from Tianjin University in China report creating a robot with “organoid intelligence,” or OI. Named MetaBOC, the robot is capable of obstacle avoidance, tracking, and grasping, and has expanded the brain-on-a-chip architecture from two dimensions to three. The study’s results were published in the journal Brain.
Brain-Computer Interface on a Chip
“The brain-computer interface on a chip is a technology that uses an in vitro cultured ‘brain’ (such as brain organoids) coupled with an electrode chip to achieve information interaction with the outside world through encoding and decoding and stimulation-feedback,” said Ming Dong from Tianjin University in a press statement translated from Chinese.
Challenges and Future Prospects
The result is a robot that’s part brain, part electronic, and fully intriguing. A putty-like, grapefruit-sized organoid sits in the head-case of a bipedal, humanoid robot, providing a vision of where this technology could be headed. However, challenges remain, such as “low developmental maturity and insufficient nutrient supply,” as noted by a Tianjin researcher in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Benefits for Neurological Conditions
Although walking, talking, synthetic brains are still far in the future, organoids could potentially benefit individuals suffering from neurological conditions. Similar to how other brain-electronic interfaces, such as Neuralink’s Brain Computer Interface (BCI), aim to improve lives, these organoids could be grafted onto living brain tissue to stimulate neuron growth.
Bridging Human and Artificial Intelligence
As the debate continues about whether the future will be driven by human ingenuity or AI cleverness, scientists are increasingly bringing these two worlds closer together, paving the way for new advancements in hybrid intelligence.