No, in the video they are using rat neurons (they're the cheapest)

You also have to keep them alive. Neurons don't last very long in vitro, particularly once you wire them up to electrical probes to measure them.

This sort of problem is also an issue with things like the Neuralink chip and other brain implant technologies.

Neural organoids can be cultured and maintained for months at a time (we grew fairly attached to the one my coworker was growing). Even the measurement wiring can be sustained for months.

I've worked in biology and computation for decades (and fascinated both with intelligence and artificial intelligence the whole time), but seeing a timelapse of a bunch neurosphere forming over a few weeks from some tiny stem cells, with all the neurons sort of self-organizing themselves by spreading lamellapodia (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fniW9EiOmUk) a few years ago flipped a switch in my head. I used to think the development of the hardware to support intelligence was a really tough, complicated problem. It's clear that the structure of neurons is absolutely primed to build semi-random networks that can be adapted to signal processing and computation in an almost "trivially easy". Obviously there's tons going on under the hood at the molecular, cellular, and organoid levels

It's funny but some technologies have a way of going from "sci-fi" to "ho-hum" quickly, and I think "rat neurons playing DOOM" is a great example of that.

Looking a little at the neuroplatform, it looks like they grow the organoid in a microfluidic container and can maintain it functionally for months. Seems like an opportunity to sell the computer as a subscription (new organoid package every month?)

> we grew fairly attached to the one my coworker was growing

This tickles me. One interpretation of the “when is it conscious” question is it’s really asking “when do we start to care about it,” and I love that the answer for humans is often “as soon as we start spending time with it.”

> It's funny but some technologies have a way of going from "sci-fi" to "ho-hum" quickly

I’m a programmer working in biotech, and the things that have become de rigor in the field are the stuff of sci-fi from a decade ago. It’s incredible.

And somehow related I think, but the lab grown meat industry is nowhere near feasible

The feasibility of the lab grown meat industry has very little in common with how hard it is to grow brains in petri dishes; the closest they get is "both are cells and both are possible".

Different cells, different arrangements, different volumes, different lifetime requirements before the cell lines are allowed to die, and different price concerns for the result.