Researchers have developed microchips that behave like brain cells

Researchers have developed microchips that behave like brain cells

The smile of the human brain is often used to understand how a computer works, but these devices still have nothing to do with our sophisticated natural machinery. However, the holy grail of computing is to mimic our abilities to store and process information.

Now, a group of scientists from the universities of Oxford and Exeter (United Kingdom), and Münster (Germany), could be one step closer to this aspiration. Scientists have developed chips that use light instead of electricity to mimic the functionality of a nerve synapse, paving the way for creating hardware that combines the speed of modern processors with the efficiency of brainpower.

The research, which has been published in Sicence Advances, combined phase change materials, which can be found in articles as common as rewritable optical discs, with integrated photonic circuits specially designed to provide a biological synaptic response that can operate at 1,000 speeds. times faster than those of the human brain, as detailed in the article.

what the scientist have managed to do:

Synapses in the brain outnumber neurons by a ratio of about 10,000 to 1. According to the researchers, what they have managed to do is mimic the synaptic behavior of neurons. Study leader Harish Bhaskaran, a professor at Oxford University, reasons in a statement why the development of computers that function more like the human brain has been a goal for scientists for decades: "By a network of neurons and synapses, the brain can process and store large amounts of information simultaneously, using only a few dozen watts of power. Conventional computers can't come close to this kind of performance. "

"The team believes that the research could pave the way for a new era of computing, where machines work and think similarly to the human brain, while exploiting the speed and energy efficiency of photonic systems.

Another recurring aspiration of computing is, not only to imitate the human brain but to join it. Neuralink is Elon Musk's new initiative to connect your brain to artificial intelligence. This magnate, creator of companies like Tesla or SpaceX, recently registered in California this new company, whose objective is to develop the necessary technology to create direct connections between a computer and the human brain. Although it is defined as a medical research company and its prototypes will most likely be brain implants that treat diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson's or depression, the dangers of this technology are many and some are evident and must be taken into account from now on.