So what exactly is Organoid Intelligence? This is a new field of research that is exploring the possibility of creating artificial brains that can learn and function like human brains. I know; it’s eerily fascinating. Organoids are 3D cultures of brain cells that are grown in a dish. They are able to self-assemble into structures that resemble the different regions of the brain, and they can even exhibit some basic forms of learning and memory. Speaking as of 2023.
This was first coined in 2021 by a team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The team published a paper describing their work on developing a brain organoid that was able to learn to associate a sound with a reward.
Recently, scientists created an extraordinary system called “DishBrain” where they connected living neurons to a computer playing the game Pong. Surprisingly, within just five minutes, the neurons began to “learn” and became better at the game. This fascinating process of learning might be linked to the free-energy principle, a concept that suggests the brain wants to reduce unpredictability and disorder in its surroundings. The neurons in DishBrain demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt and improve, even in a virtual environment.
“Remarkably, the cultures learned how to make their world more predictable by acting upon it. This is remarkable because you cannot teach this kind of self-organization; simply because — unlike a pet — these mini brains have no sense of reward and punishment.”
Professor Karl Friston, a theoretical neuroscientist at UCL, London.
Why did we do this in the first place, and how does this benefit us?
The development of organoid intelligence stemmed from the desire to understand the intricacies of the human brain and address the limitations of traditional research methods. It was aimed to help understand and develop solutions for various diseases that have been troubling humans for quite a while now.
OI helps researchers to:
· Learn more about brain formation
· Find new treatments for brain disorders
· Test drugs more effectively.
OI also offers the potential to combine biological intelligence with artificial intelligence, leading to smarter AI systems. By using OI, we can make progress in medicine, drug discovery, and our understanding of how the brain works, all while reducing the need for animal testing and invasive human studies.
Is OI actually going to surpass AI? Well, they are not in a race to overtake each other, but rather they have the potential to work together in an exciting partnership. OI offers a deeper understanding of the human brain and its development, while AI brings computational power and advanced algorithms to the table. By combining them both, we can create more sophisticated and biologically inspired AI systems, opening up a universe of possibilities. Pretty cool, right?
The field of organoid intelligence is still in its infancy, but the possibilities it presents are vast. Scientists are even considering the possibility of a self-conscious being emerging from this project. But naturally, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed before OI grown in labs can become a reality. These include:
- Scaling up, as the current methods for growing brain cells makes it impossible to grow large numbers of cells at once.
- Creating complex networks, as it is not yet clear how to create these networks artificially.
- Whether or not OI can be conscious. This is a question that is still being debated by philosophers and scientists, and there is no easy answer.
Despite these challenges, the field of OI grown in labs is rapidly advancing, and it is possible that we will see truly intelligent artificial brains within our lifetime.
