Boffins have pulled off a mind-blowing stunt – teaching a clump of living brain cells to blast their way through cult video game DOOM.
In a world-first that sounds straight out of a sci-fi blockbuster, eggheads at Aussie biotech firm Cortical Labs have trained more than 800,000 living neurons in a petri dish to play the iconic shooter.
The Melbourne-based team first made waves a few years back when their so-called CL1 ‘mini-brain’ managed to run the 1972 arcade classic Pong.
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That alone was enough to raise eyebrows in the tech world.
Now they’ve cranked things up a notch, as reported by What’s the Jam.
Their latest feat sees the same brainy tech tackling DOOM – the fast-paced, monster-packed 3D blaster that defined a generation of gamers.
The CL1 system is made up of real, living neurons grown in a nutrient-rich solution.
These cells spread across a silicon chip, which sends and receives electrical signals.
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Those signals are then translated into actions inside the game.
It might sound like something cooked up in a Hollywood writer’s room, but the system works in a similar way to artificial intelligence.
The big twist? It needs far less processing power and could have huge implications across the biotech industry.
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Four years on from their Pong breakthrough, the scientists decided to see if their mini-brain could handle something far more demanding.
Enter DOOM.
Brett Kagan, Cortical Labs’ chief science officer, said their earlier Pong success was a “massive milestone” because it proved biological neurons could learn in real time and adapt to achieve a goal.
But it was no quick win.
Brett said: “It took us 18 months with our original hardware and software to get this to work.
“And Pong was much simpler.”
DOOM, on the other hand, was a different beast entirely.
Brett said: “It’s 3D, it has enemies, it needs to explore – it’s an environment, and it’s hard.”
To make it happen, the team had to convert the world of DOOM – its corridors, monsters and mechanics – into electrical impulses the cells could understand.
Those signals allowed the neurons to ‘see’ what was happening and respond.
But they are not exactly esports champions just yet.
Brett added: “Right now, the cells play a lot like a beginner who’s never seen a computer.
“And in all fairness, they haven’t.
“But they show evidence that they can seek out enemies, they can shoot, they can spin.”
The leap from batting a digital ball back and forth in Pong to navigating a chaotic 3D shooter is a huge one.
If a dish of brain cells can learn to survive in DOOM’s demon-filled corridors, the question now is simple – what game will they conquer next?
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