Lab-grown brain cells play video game Pong

Make a Brain and Play Games With It

Brains and artificial intelligence.. there’s a conundrum. Is a lab grown brain intelligent where a piece of software is artificially so?

In a previous article Man who gave microwave artificial intelligence claims it tried to cook him to death  we discussed what can go wrong with artificial intelligence and how this pretend brain is out to kill all humankind.

Creepy as it may be, it’s not as bad as growing your own brain in a dish in the fridge and plugging it into your ZX81 Spectrum to play pong.

This article Lab Grown Brain Plays Pong describes in grizzly detail how they grew a few million cells and taught it to play. While they claim the brain isn’t sentient, it has learned to play a game. How can this not be?

The claim is that this is the first step into fully intelligent robotic life forms, ‘programmed’ to serve and do things we don’t want to. How many science fiction films start off with well meaning but ill thought out lab experiments?

There are many ethical issues here not least the creepy factor of introducing some moral fibre into the brain and indeed the brainiacs who are creating this thing.

Standby to be exterminated!