Scientists are once again asking not whether they "should" but whether they "can." A team of researchers at Cortical Labs, a "biological computing startup," has taught lab-grown brain cells how to play Pong. By laying about 800,000 neurons on a silicon chip and sending them electrical signals, the cells were able to show "clear learning within five minutes," the scientists involved said (opens in new tab). Thus began the deus ex machina.

Scientists call this collection of silicon and neurons the DishBrain. To be clear, the process was a bit more abstract than putting a Petri dish in front of a "Video Olympics" for the Atari 2600: the DishBrain does not respond to visual input as you or I would, but to a series of alternating electrical signals that simulate a round of Pong It responded, and the researchers translated that into a visual representation of the game. [When DishBrain hit the ball, it responded with a predictable electrical response; when DishBrain missed the ball, the signals spiked randomly. The cells were not aware and "didn't know" they were playing a game. Rather, by naturally adapting to receive predictable responses more frequently, DishBrain adapted to Pong, or more poetically, learned Pong. Most exciting for the researchers, DishBrain learned quickly, on the fly, and with very low power consumption.

Also, DishBrain was apparently quite poor at this. Still, its success rate was clearly better than random chance. The cells were really adapting to get better at Pong. While this may seem unremarkable compared to the abilities demonstrated by other AIs in games like chess, checkers (open in new tab), and "Overcooked" (open in new tab), these projects are not using actual organic brain cells. If we want a dark cyborg future, it has to start with Pong being "so-so."

The DishBrain development team says the next test will look at the effects of alcohol on neuron activity. However, the project's goal is to help treat neurodegenerative diseases, and there are several conditions, like dementia (open in new tab), that can be caused or exacerbated by excessive alcohol consumption. Still, one can't shake the feeling that this is how the cheesy sci-fi paperback plot begins.