The world’s first “biological computer” that fuses human brain cells with silicon hardware to form fluid neural networks has been commercially launched, ushering in a new age of AI technology. The CL1, from Australian company Cortical Labs, offers a whole new kind of computing intelligence \u2013 one that’s more dynamic, sustainable and energy efficient than any AI that currently exists \u2013 and we will start to see its potential when it’s in users’ hands in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Known as a Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI), Cortical’s CL1 system was officially launched in Barcelona on March 2, 2025, and is expected to be a game-changer for science and medical research. The human-cell neural networks that form on the silicon “chip” are essentially an ever-evolving organic computer, and the engineers behind it say it learns so quickly and flexibly that it completely outpaces the silicon-based AI chips used to train existing large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday is the culmination of a vision that has powered Cortical Labs for almost six years,” said Cortical founder and CEO Dr Hon Weng Chong. “We\u2019ve enjoyed a series of critical breakthroughs in recent years, most notably our research in the journal Neuron<\/em>, through which cultures were embedded in a simulated game-world, and were provided with electrophysiological stimulation and recording to mimic the arcade game Pong<\/em>. However, our long-term mission has been to democratize this technology, making it accessible to researchers without specialized hardware and software. The CL1 is the realization of that mission.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> BRAIN IN A BOX: World's first "Synthetic Biological Intelligence" runs on living human cells https:\/\/t.co\/jB9Y3EItca<\/a><\/p>— NICK KWEK 💡 (@NICKKWEK) March 4, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>