University of Bristol scientists develop biohybrid computer using brain organoids

Researchers at the University of Bristol have developed a biohybrid computer using human brain organoids capable of decoding Braille. The study, published in Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, details how the team used three tiny, three-dimensional cultures of human brain tissue to process tactile information.

By connecting the organoids—which contain approximately 10,000 neurons—to electrodes and a machine learning algorithm, the scientists were able to translate electrical signals from a robotic tactile sensor into Braille characters. The system achieved an 83% classification accuracy rate when identifying letters of the Braille alphabet.

Lead researcher Tianyi Liu noted that while the organoids are not conscious, they function as living neural networks capable of producing neural activity. This technology represents a potential step toward highly energy-efficient computing, as biological neural systems require significantly less power than traditional silicon-based data centers.