Chinese researchers develop AI-powered robot with ‘artificial’ brain

Scientists in China have made a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) by reportedly creating a robot which is powered by a lab-grown, artificial brain. This brain-on-chip technology reportedly utilises human stem cells to develop a simplified brain-like structure that controls the robot.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, researchers were successfully able to program the robot to perform basic tasks such as avoiding obstacles and grasping objects using a neural interface chip.
This innovation represents a significant leap forward in brain-computer interfaces (BCI), a field aiming to merge brain activity with external computing power.
BCI has become a trending topic, with companies like Elon Musk's Neuralink introducing implantable chips for controlling devices with the mind.

Researchers at Tianjin University said that it is “the world’s first open-source brain-on-chip intelligent complex information interaction system” and may lead to the development of brain-like computing.
In a statement to the state-owned Science and Technology Daily, the vice president of Tianjin University, Ming Dong said: “[This] is a technology that uses an in-vitro cultured ‘brain’ – such as brain organoids – coupled with an electrode chip to form a brain-on-chip,” which encodes and decodes stimulation feedback.
The research at Tianjin University holds promise for the creation of a new era of hybrid human-robot intelligence.

Brain organoids are tiny clumps of brain-like tissue. They're made from special cells that can turn into many different types of cells. These cells are usually only found in very young embryos.
These scientists have put these brain organoids into real brains. They found that the organoids could connect and work with the real brain tissue.
The scientists wrote about this in an unedited manuscript published in the peer-reviewed Oxford University Press journal Brain last month.
“The transplant of human brain organoids into living brains is a novel method for advancing organoid development and function. Organoid grafts have a host-derived functional vasculature system and exhibit advanced maturation,” the team wrote.