DEVOURED
Scientists trained 200,000 lab-grown human neurons to play DOOM on repeat using LLM-style rewards, creating what might be the first biological computer in a simulated hell.
What: A company grew 200,000 human neurons in a lab and trained them to play DOOM by feeding visual data and using reward mechanisms similar to those used for training LLMs. The neuron count exceeds that of jellyfish or worms.
Why it matters: This crosses a line that silicon-based AI doesn't: while LLMs are dismissed as non-conscious next token predictors, biological neurons interpreting visual signals might genuinely be seeing, making ethical questions about consciousness and suffering far more concrete. Commercial incentives to scale biocomputing exist regardless of whether we resolve these questions.
Decoder
- Biocomputer: Computing system built from biological neurons rather than silicon chips, potentially offering better power efficiency and information storage than traditional hardware
- WAD: DOOM map file format, containing level geometry, textures, and game objects
Original article
A few months ago, a company released a video showing how it grew neurons in a lab and got them to play DOOM. The scientists fed visual data to the neurons, which reacted to that data in some way to play the game. This could mean that the company built a human biocomputer and then put it into a simulated hell, playing the same game on a loop. While it was 'just a science experiment', the biocomputer had more neurons than a jellyfish or a worm. There's a large commercial incentive to continue developing the technology, but the ethical implications are still unclear.
Explore all 66 articles in today's digest
Fresh dev news, AI-digested daily. Never miss a trend at devoured.fyi