Scientists create ‘mini brain’ in lab dish that learned to play 1986 game ‘Pong’

In a massive discovery, scientists grew tiny brain cells in a lab dish which were able to learn a 1970s tennis-like video game, ‘Pong’. According to researchers, the ‘mini-brain’ can sense and respond to its environment.

Although Pong wasn't the first video game ever created, it was the first big commercial success and contributed to the creation of the gaming industry as we know it today.

The game’s popularity is unquestionably attributable to how easy it is to play—basically a table tennis simulation in which two players shift paddles across a screen to hit a ball back and forth with one another.




Recent scientific research has demonstrated that it is so simple to learn that even lab-grown brain cells in a dish can learn to play it, reportedly within minutes. Although tiny brains like this are not particularly novel, this is the first instance of one interacting with the external world.

According to reports, this specific ‘mini brain’ is the first lab-grown "sentient" brain in a dish. However, as it lacks any type of consciousness, the word "sentient" isn't really the right one to describe it. According to Dr Brett Kagan of the company Cortical Labs, which claims to have created the first sentient brain in a dish, they could not find any better term to describe the tiny cells.

The lab-grown brain has the capacity to receive information from an outside source, process it, and then react to it instantly. It took the brain five minutes to learn how to play Pong after being wired up with electrodes. It certainly didn't play perfectly.

FAQs

How much time did the brain take to learn Pong?
It took the lab-grown mini brain five minutes to learn how to play Pong after being wired up with electrodes.

Why isn’t ‘sentient’ the right word to describe the brain?
As it lacks any type of consciousness, the word "sentient" isn't really the right one to describe scientific discovery, according to Dr Brett Kagan of Cortical Labs.