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Organoids of intelligence

Nature Physics volume 14, page 634 (2018)Cite this article

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No man-made device of any kind, computer or otherwise, has yet come close to displaying anything like artificial intelligence on the human level. Nor has any device developed conscious awareness, and they may not for a long time. One current problem, experts suggest, is a fashion in AI research for exploring how computers can tackle the relatively easy challenge of making probabilistic associations on the basis of massive datasets — something that amounts, more or less, to high-level curve fitting. To approach real thinking, machines have to face the more profound challenge of learning to actually reason and work with the concept of causation.

But computing of the digital variety isn’t the only kind possible. Indeed, biologists have been rapidly developing a technology to grow functioning and living tissues from real human cells, and have already realized complex geometrical constructs resembling real human brain tissue both in structure and function. Some show aspects of realistic neural activity, even responding to external stimuli in a coherent way. Such progress now has researchers openly concerned (see Nita Farahany et al., Nature 556, 429–432; 2018) about the ethical challenges that will arise if a piece of tissue in a lab dish suddenly shows signs of having conscious states or reasoning abilities. That’s still probably years away, but it may arrive well before computer-based AI, and could happen much sooner than most people think.

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    Mark Buchanan

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Buchanan, M. Organoids of intelligence. Nature Phys 14, 634 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0200-2

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