Singapore's Biological Data Center: How Human Neurons Compute

All right. Singapore just launched a data center powered by living human brain cells. And before you ask whose brain cells they're putting in the computer, the situation gets weirder.

They don't take them from somebody's brain.

This all can get started with blood from a living person, meaning theoretically, they could put you in the data center.

I'm GigaChan, and I'm gonna show you how this works because Singapore now has 20 biological computers that use real human neurons as part of the computing system. Let's be clear.

When I said powered by, I didn't mean the neurons generate electricity.

The neurons actually process information.

So where do they get them? Reportedly, the neurons are from blood cells that were reprogrammed into stem cells. And Cortical Labs, the company that makes these computers, has already shown how personal that can get.

The company's CEO says he already gave about 10 milliliters of his blood so that the neurons could, you might have guessed it, play with Doom.

Yep, that same old video game. You could really say that founder put his blood, sweat, and tears into his work. Let me tell you how all this works.

Scientists can take cells from blood and reprogram them into what is called induced pluripotent stem cells.

That basically means resetting an adult cell to a state where it can become multiple different cells again. Then they use chemical signals to guide those reset cells into becoming actual human neurons.

And no, those neurons don't contain the donor's memories or personality, but they do contain genetic information from the donor.

Now take at least 200,000 of those neurons and grow them directly across a silicon chip covered in microscopic electrodes.

The neurons grow, connect with each other, and form a living neural network. And this is where it becomes a computer.

The electrodes send patterns of electrical signals into the neurons.

The neurons respond by firing, and the electrodes record that response.

And yeah, software translates it back into digital information.

So information goes in as electricity, living human neurons process it, and then information comes back out.

And since these are living cells, the computer has to actually feed them and keep them alive. For decades, AI has tried to make silicon imitate biological human neurons.

This time, we might be skipping the imitation.

And if you want to know more, look up CL1.