An artist’s impression of the DeepSouth supercomputer A supercomputer capable of simulating, at full scale, the synapses of a human brain is set to boot up in Australia next year, in the hopes of understanding how our brains process massive amounts of information while consuming relatively little power. The machine, known as DeepSouth, is being … Read more
Brain organoids growing in a Petri dish Science Photo Library / Alamy Balls of human brain cells linked to a computer have been used to perform a very basic form of speech recognition. The hope is that such systems will use far less energy for AI tasks than silicon chips. “This is just proof-of-concept to … Read more
The “Stentrode” brain implant Synchron Rodney Gorham, a 63-year-old Australian, has always been a music fan. In a recent WhatsApp conversation with New Scientist, he shared his thoughts on his most memorable live event – “AC/DC in their prime”. But more remarkable than that concert is the implant that allows Gorham to communicate even though … Read more
An AI recreated a clip of Pink Floyd’s song Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1 from brain recordings Smith Collection/Gado/Alamy An artificial intelligence has created a passable cover of a Pink Floyd song by analysing brain activity recorded while people listened to the original. The findings further our understanding of how we perceive sound … Read more
In VR, rats can exert control with their minds blickwinkel/Schmidt-Roeger/Alamy Rats can move objects in virtual reality just by thinking of where they want them to go, thanks to an artificial intelligence that reads their intentions in the brain. A mental map of our local surroundings is stored in a brain region called the hippocampus, … Read more
A brain organoid viewed with a scanning electron microscope STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Balls of human brain cells grown in a dish, known as organoids, have been linked to computers and used to solve mathematical equations. The work is an early step towards using living brain tissue as a form of artificial intelligence, but this … Read more