A petri dish full of living human neurons just learned to play Doom and scientists say this is only the beginning
Scientists have just revealed that not only is there a petri dish full of living human neurons hanging about, but they just learned to play Doom, and according to researchers, they’ve barely gotten started.
Winning the prize for the wildest tech story of the year, researchers at Australian biotech company Cortical Labs got roughly 200,000 living human brain cells to interact with the iconic video game in real time.
They are not exactly speedrunning the thing just yet, but the fact that they can spot enemies, respond, and make moves at all is enough to make this feel like science fiction creeping into real life.
And while the Doom demo is the headline grabber, the team says the bigger picture could be far more important than gaming.
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A petri dish full of living human neurons just learned to play Doom
This insane gaming setup centers on Cortical Labs’ CL1 biocomputer, which uses living neurons placed on a silicon chip.
Those neurons receive electrical stimulation based on what’s happening inside the iconic game, so if a demon appears on one side of the screen, that information is translated into signals the cells can react to.
Researchers then read the neurons’ electrical responses and convert them into in-game actions such as moving or shooting.
It’s basically a strange but very real back and forth between biology and software, and somehow it works.
The team had previously shown neurons could learn to play Pong, but Doom is a much bigger leap.
Pong is simple and direct, but Doom is messy, fast, three-dimensional, full of threats, and asks for a lot more from anything trying to survive inside it.
Scientists say this is only the beginning
Right now, the neuron powered Doom player is not exactly a champion.
Researchers admitted it behaves more like a total beginner who has never seen a computer before, which, to be fair, is completely true.
But that is not the point.
The real breakthrough is that scientists say they have solved the interface problem, meaning they now have a working system for communicating with living neurons in real time and training them through feedback.
That opens the door to much bigger possibilities.
Cortical Labs says the long-term goal is not just to make brain cells better at old video games, but to use biocomputing for things like disease modeling and testing treatments on neurons outside the human body.
Doom might be the first step, but the really big boss battle is still ahead, and it shows you don’t truly know where your gaming competitors might be located.
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