Brain In A Jar Plays Doom, Eternal Doom. This Is Fine.

Researchers have kept human brain cells alive in a dish and trained them to play Doom. Not simulated neurons, actual human-derived cells, in a petri dish, navigating a video game. Do we really want to be doing this? Cortical Labs have followed up their earlier DishBrain work, where cultured neurons learned to play Pong, with something considerably harder. Doom. The cells are connected to a game environment through electrodes, receiving feedback when they act correctly or incorrectly. A reward loop that mirrors how biological learning works. Over time, the neurons adapt. They're not playing it well. But they are playing it. Cortical Labs are positioning this as a path toward more efficient AI, biological systems consume far less energy than silicon. The harder question, which nobody is quite ready to answer, is where the ethical lines sit as the substrate gets more complex. For now, a petri dish has completed a level of Doom. That's weird enough.