DishBrain / Cortical Labs (CL1)
artifactAI & Compute · Intelligence & Surveillance
Scientists taught living human brain cells in a dish to play video games — and the CIA's venture arm put money in.
Who they are
DishBrain / Cortical Labs' CL1, a Melbourne-based living-neuron computing project.
What they do
The engine lists it as real 'wetware' — biological neurons harnessed to do computation.
How it works
800,000 neurons learned to play Pong in five minutes using active inference (Friston's free-energy principle), and the 2026 CL1 chip ran 200,000 neurons playing DOOM on under one watt; In-Q-Tel (the CIA's venture fund) invested in a $10M Series A alongside Li Ka-shing's Horizons Ventures.
Why it matters
It marks the CIA formally entering living-brain computing — though the tech is limited (poor memory between sessions, useful as an ultra-low-power coprocessor, not a full chip replacement).
The engine's record — word for word
Melbourne-based. 800K neurons on HD-MEA learned Pong in 5 mins via active inference (Friston). CL1 (2026): 200K neurons played DOOM in <1W. In-Q-Tel (CIA VC) invested in $10M Series A alongside Horizons Ventures (Li Ka-shing). CIA formally enters wetware. Between-session memory retention poor. Not standalone GPU replacement — ultra-low-power coprocessor for noisy pattern recognition.
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