Inside a Swiss laboratory in Vevey, scientists at the start-up FinalSpark are cultivating millimetre-scale organoids made from human skin-cell-derived stem cells. These clusters of neurons, tiny “mini-brains,” are connected via electrodes and immersed in nutrient-rich fluid to keep them alive and functioning, tells Tech Xplore.
Rather than relying on silicon chips to simulate neural networks, FinalSpark’s approach uses the real thing: living neurons that fire when stimulated. The organoids currently house around 10,000 neurons each (a tiny number compared with a human brain’s ~100 billion) but hold promise because biological neurons are vastly more energy efficient, perhaps a million times better than artificial neurons.
Researchers have already hooked one organoid to a simple robot that could distinguish Braille letters, proof of concept that living neural networks can perform tangible tasks. However, the technology is in its infancy. Challenges abound: encoding data in a format the organoid “understands,” decoding outputs, keeping the cells alive (they last up to about six months), and scaling to practical computing tasks are all unresolved.
Beyond engineering, ethical and philosophical questions loom large. Could such organoids ever become conscious? FinalSpark collaborates with ethicists on this front. The lab asserts the current organoids lack pain receptors and consciousness, yet the issue remains at the perimeter of technology and mind. The long-term vision is bold: biocomputers built from human neural tissue could one day replace or augment the AI hardware that today consumes vast energy and faces manufacturing bottlenecks. But for now, this remains speculative. The researchers describe biocomputing as perhaps 20 years away from meaningful impact.
The article explores a radical computing paradigm: not chips made to mimic brains, but brains being used as chips. It sits at the intersection of neuroscience, computing, and ethics, showing how engineering increasingly crosses disciplinary boundaries in pursuit of performance, efficiency, and new modes of intelligence.