Melbourne-based Cortical Labs has unveiled the CL1 biological computer at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The developers say it has the potential to revolutionize artificial intelligence and robotics. How much does such a computer cost?
Melbourne-based Cortical Labs has unveiled the CL1 biological computer at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The developers say it has the potential to revolutionize artificial intelligence and robotics. How much does such a computer cost?
In the initial version of this article, it was incorrectly stated that Cortical Labs described the CL1 biological computer as a «body in a coffin» or «body in a box» due to a misunderstanding in the original New Atlass article. The dev.ua article has been corrected according to clarifications from the developers. We apologize for the error.
The computer uses lab-grown neurons grown on a silicon chip, allowing them to send and receive electrical impulses, the Independent reports, citing New Atlass. The setup integrates with Cortical Labs' biological intelligence operating system (biOS), which allows users to deploy code through the neurons and perform computational tasks.
CL-1 has a life support system for neural cells that controls temperature, gas mixing, and waste filtration.
A biologically based system is able to learn and adapt more efficiently than conventional silicon-based computers, while using significantly less energy.
An early version of a biological computer, containing 800,000 human and mouse neurons on a computer chip, was able to run the classic game Pong. The neurons were shown to learn and show emotion when embedded in a simulated game world.
The company says it has put safeguards in place to address ethical concerns surrounding consciousness and emotion, but it doesn’t provide any details. On its website, Cortical Labs claims that «the neuron is self-programmable,» as well as «infinitely flexible» and «the result of four billion years of evolution».
«Our technology combines biology with traditional computing to create a perfect machine learning… Unlike traditional AI, our neural systems require minimal energy and training data to perform complex tasks,» the company says.
Cortical Labs said the first CL1 computers will be ready to ship to customers in June, and each unit will cost around $35,000.
«Today is the culmination of a vision that has driven Cortical Labs for nearly six years. Our long-term mission has been to democratize this technology by making it accessible to researchers without specialized hardware and software. CL1 is the realization of that mission», — said Cortical Founder and CEO Dr. Hon Weng Chong.
It was previously reported that Cortical Labs would begin providing cloud services with clusters of 120 biological computers by the end of 2024. Chong noted that «Cortical Labs aspires to be like Nvidia».
