There are a lot of ethical questions when it comes to using neurons to build AI systems, but different forms of "biocomputing" are already being developed – and they're evolving rapidly.

The concept was introduced through a Monash University project in Australia known as the DishBrain project. Researchers grew ~800,000 brain cells on a chip and taught it to play the game Pong in just five minutes.

The project’s success led to funding from the Australian military and the formation of Cortical Labs.

Why explore this option? While GPUs are costly to manufacture and use a ton of electricity, neurons can be grown in a lab and, according to the Cortical Labs Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan, "neuron-enhanced biocomputers appear to learn much faster" and use "much less power, than today's AI machine learning chips."

But if we're using living cells, are these considered living systems? And what happens if they develop enough to mimic human intelligence? What do you think about this convergence of biology and technology?

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