Welcome to the strange and fascinating frontier of biocomputing, where living cells, rather than silicon chips, could power the computers of the future.
In a lab in Switzerland, scientists at FinalSpark are experimenting with “mini-brains” grown from human stem cells. Their long-term vision? Data centres filled with living servers that replicate the way artificial intelligence (AI) learns—while consuming a fraction of the energy needed by today’s supercomputers.
Dr Fred Jordan, co-founder of FinalSpark, describes it as a revolution waiting to happen. “For AI, it’s always the same: you give some input, you want some output. For instance, you give a picture of a cat, and you want the system to tell you it’s a cat.” The goal is to train these lab-grown neurons to adapt and learn, much like biological brains.
The process begins with stem cells, sourced from clinics in Japan. FinalSpark’s cellular biologist, Dr Flora Brozzi, shows the starting point: tiny white orbs in a dish. These organoids—clusters of neurons and support cells—are grown over several months until they are ready to be attached to electrodes. At that point, they can begin responding to simple commands.
The journey is not without heartbreak. The organoids, being alive, also die. Sometimes, before shutting down, they show a burst of activity similar to what’s been observed in human brains at end-of-life.
“We’ve recorded around 1,000 or 2,000 of these deaths across five years,” Dr Jordan says. “It’s sad, but we study the reasons and try again.”
The promise of this “wetware” is enormous, but scientists caution that it is still very early days. Dr Lena Smirnova of Johns Hopkins University argues that biocomputing should complement, not replace, silicon AI. It also offers potential breakthroughs in disease modelling and could reduce reliance on animal testing.
Prof Schultz, another voice in the field, believes biocomputing may never outpace silicon in raw power but will carve out its own niche. “We won’t out-compete silicon, but we’ll find where biocomputing adds unique value.”
For now, the idea of servers made of living cells may sound like science fiction. But in labs like FinalSpark, the foundations are already being laid for a future where human-made machines and biology blur in ways we are only beginning to imagine.
