Cortical Labs plots out next steps

Cortical Labs is gearing up for its next steps as it continues with the innovative work that could see it produce technology capable of cutting AI operational costs and reducing the environmental impact of cloud computing.   

The Melbourne-based startup is aiming to change the computing landscape and help solve the environmental impacts through biological computing.

The biological computing company uses adult pluripotent stem cells and “turns them into neurons that are pretty much the same as the ones that are currently in our heads” according to Cortical Labs founder and CEO, Hon Weng Chong.

Once this process is complete “we decided to do was to put them on a computer chip” that should enable the Cortical Labs to create material that can be used to make “more efficient low power computing devices.”

Chong told Digital Nation Cortical Labs is looking to solve “all the AI problems” through its research and technology.

“We know what the endpoint is, which is that these neurons will turn into a brain and the brain has emergent properties, such as in intelligence, somewhat consciousness as well.”

He said the topic of consciousness is one the company “don't really want to cross” given its awareness of the sensitive topic.

“Intelligence is certainly a property that I think we will actually come across and we see this not only in humans, but in all animals and insects as well.

“The idea is, can we use the technology that we're developing here to create systems that learn much faster, use much less data and use far less energy?

“Because if you think about it, there is a cost associated with all AI right now that no one's really talking about, which is the environmental impact and also the amount of data required.”

Over the coming year the company will be focusing on “wetware”, organic material from the brain, as opposed to computer hardware or software, with the team already shipping five of these units to a partner in Cambridge, to experiment “with the cell lines that are using CRISPR”.

Cortical Labs is also building its cluster of biological systems to plug into the cloud “so that researchers, developers anywhere in the world could get access to these neurons without having to spin up a laboratory or grow the cells themselves”.

The planned commercial product will be useful for researchers as they explore the emerging technology, Chong said.

Nurturing Australian talent

As the federal government pumps $15 billion into the National Reconstruction Fund Chong said there’s a “significant opportunity for us to start thinking about building our deep tech ecosystem”.

“A lot of people don't realise that when we say deep tech, that the reward that comes from it is further down the lines - from the smallest startups that get spawned from using these technologies.”

“The government has allocated $15 billion to the National Reconstruction Fund the problem is, it's impossible to figure out how to get that money. 

“There was no request for tenders, there was no theme, how do you even engage them?

He said it’s hard to decipher what the fund is hoping to achieve given the lack of clarity on how the fund operates.  

“Having said that we got to see it deployed, we got to have a plan, we got to figure out what are the core technologies we want to be targeting.

“As I can tell, the only real technology that has received any funding from that has been Quantum but even then, that's a drop in the bucket compared to the overall size of it.”