These Brain Cells Are Trained to Play Doom

Cortical Labs is a biotechnology company based in Melbourne, Australia. To call their current project futuristic would be an understatement: it involves the creation of a biological computer. In 2022, its researchers successfully grew brain cells on a microchip: to demonstrate that these cells could learn information and pursue a goal, they were taught to play Pong.

It was no simple task: Cortical Labs experts spent 18 months of work before the neurons became capable of playing Pong. However, the success was a fundamental step in their research, and once shared with the world, the internet community immediately posed the most important question: can brain cells play Doom? 

Doom: The Dark Ages - PS5

Vedi su Amazon

Gamesurf may earn a commission on every purchase you make

 
Teaching a Neuron to Play Doom

Pong required a full 18 months of effort and is extremely simpler than Doom, but the Cortical Labs team did not lose heart and got to work. The video you see below documents the endeavor and explains in simple terms how it is possible to teach a neuron to play Doom: the video game's language must be translated into the brain's language, which is electrical impulses.

For every action that can happen on screen, the researchers therefore had to create a corresponding electrical impulse, so that the brain cells knew what was happening and could react by giving a command to the game. But this is obviously not enough, because to truly learn, it is also necessary to receive feedback, so that it is understood whether the choice made is positive or negative. Cortical Labs also succeeded in providing feedback to the neurons, thus guiding their learning.

Today Doom, Tomorrow the World

At the moment, the brain cells are playing Doom as if they had never seen a computer in their lives (which is actually true), but they are able to discern what is happening on screen and what to do. But with time, they will improve: Cortical Labs' next step is to understand how to improve cell learning, so that one day they can excel at Doom and the day after tomorrow dedicate themselves to even more complex tasks.

The Living Human Brain Cells Play DOOM Video