China is closer to building a brain-controlled robot

Science fiction usually depicts merging human brains into machines, often walking around as robots. Recently, China turned that into a reality with its first brain-controlled robot. 

The South China Morning Post reported that Tianjin University researchers created a mass of human brain cells that might be able to drive a humanoid machine. The researchers describe the pilot as a “brain on a chip.” 

READ: Korean scientists created the first AI humanoid pilot

The researchers discovered that the brain cells can learn faster than artificial intelligence models. As a result, it has the potential to avoid obstacles, track targets, and even grab things with its arms. 

How did they build the brain-controlled robot?

Educational website New Atlas says the brain-controlled robot is a project from two Chinese universities. These are Tianjin University’s Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Computer Integration and the Southern University of Science and Technology. 

Their researchers started by cultivating the human brain cells under low-intensity focused ultrasound stimulation. Then, they molded them into a ball-shaped organoid. 

The Tianjin researchers said the organic mass is ready to become the core of the brain-controlled robot. Eventually, the humanoid machine can start learning tasks like “avoiding obstacles, tracking targets, or learning to use arms and hands to grasp various objects.”

The brain organoid can only perceive its surroundings through receiving electrical signals. Theoretically, it can practice controlling its robot in a simulated environment, letting it train without damaging the organic pilot.

New Atlas says the images above are mockups, “demonstration diagrams of future application scenarios.” Nevertheless, they are growing closer to reality as science and technology rapidly develop. 

For example, Neuralink succeeded in implanting a computer chip in a human brain, allowing a person to control a computer with their mind. 

This brain-controlled robot is another huge step, even though it isn’t apparent. Scientists putting human brain cells into machines to control them is an astounding albeit frightening breakthrough. 

This project also proves that human brains are smarter than artificial intelligence. Brett Kagan, the chief scientific officer of the biological computing company Cortical Labs, said:

“The biological systems, even as basic and janky as they are right now, are still outperforming the best deep learning algorithms that people have generated. That’s pretty wild.”

Soon, we will have to face the ethical ramifications of these machines. Of course, they will need more research and development to become reality.