We talk about CL1 during the Mobile World Congress and now we have a novelty: it can be rented. CL1 is the first commercial hybrid in the world of silicon circuits and human neurons. Developed by its enormous potential in medical research, this biological machine, developed in a British laboratory, is based on the Dishbrain prototype, which plays the PONG.
Each CL1 computer It consists of 800,000 neurons grown in a silicon chip and its life support system. Although it still cannot match the amazing capacities of the most powerful computers of today, the system has a very significant advantage: it consumes only a fraction of the energy of comparable technologies.
IA centers now consume the energy equivalent to that of a country, while A set of Cl1 machines only uses 1,000 watts and is naturally capable of adapting and learning in real time.
“The neuron is self -program, it is infinitely flexible and It is the result of four billion years of evolution. What the digital models of ia try to emulate with huge resources, we begin with it ”, Explain the startup Australian Cortical Biotechnology Labs on its website.
The company se He associated with bit.bio To develop Dishbrain, an experimental platform designed to explore the concept of “wetware”. When the neuroscientist Brett Kagan and his colleagues They compared their creation with automatic learning algorithms of equivalent levels, cell culture systems surpassed them.
Users They can send code directly to the neurons system with synthetic supportcapable of responding to electrical signals almost instantaneously. These signals act as information bits that cells can read and process.
But maybe The greatest potential of this biological and synthetic hybrid is as a experimental tool to learn more about our own brains and its abilities, from neuroscience to creativity.
“Epileptic cells do not learn very well to play video games, but if antiepileptics are applied to the cell culture, They can learn better suddenly, as well as a series of other previously inaccessible metrics ”explained Kagan himself, highlighting the ability of the system to perform ethical drug tests.
The “computer neurons” are developed from skin and blood samples provided by adult human donors. While there are still many limitations (for example, neurons only survive six months), The energy savings potential of this technology suggests on its own. It is worth continuing to develop these systemsespecially given the precarious state of our own life support system.
As reported, the first units CL1 will be sent soon for 35,000 euros … or can be rented, by remote access for 300 per week.