This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips | E2295

About this episode

The episode discusses the fusion of human brain cells with silicon chips to create biological computers and explores the applications of autonomous aircraft.

This Week In Startups is made possible by: Deel https://deel.com/twist Quo https://quo.com/TWiST LinkedIn Jobs https://LinkedIn.com/twist Today’s show: Cortical Labs is the world’s first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI). Founder Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through how the system works and why neurons are more efficient than GPUs at reinforcement learning. (Also… is this computer alive?) PLUS Pyka co-founder and CEO Michael Norcia explains the various uses for his autonomous aircraft, from crop-spraying drones in Brazil to a a hybrid-electric defense UAV for the military. Guests: Cortical Labs: **** https://corticallabs.com/ Dr. Hon Weng Chong on X: https://x.com/dr1337 Pyka: https://www.flypyka.com/ Pyka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flypyka/?hl=en Further Reading: 2022 Pong paper in Neuron : https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6 2017 Paper: “Attention is All You Need”; https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762 The “Barista Test” for Artificial Intelligence: Chris Rourk…

People in this episode

Host: Jason Calacanis

Guests: Dr. Hon Weng Chong, Michael Norcia

Topics covered

• biological computers
• synthetic biological intelligence
• autonomous aircraft
• reinforcement learning
• crop-spraying drones
• military UAV

Keywords

• Cortical Labs
• synthetic biological intelligence
• autonomous aircraft
• reinforcement learning
• crop-spraying drones
• military UAV

Sponsors

Deel, Quo, LinkedIn Jobs

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cortical Labs, Pyka

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