You can now rent a brain in the cloud
Cortical Labs is offering a CL1-based cloud service powered by real, lab-grown human neurons.
To keep these mini-brains alive and working, they need a daily dose of cerebrospinal fluid for oxygen and glucose.
What is a CL1?
Launched recently, each CL1 contains around 200,000-800,000 stem-cell-grown neurons on silicon chips.
It's got its own life-support system with electrodes and a bioreactor, runs super-fast on custom software, and can be maintained by trained technicians or lab staff responsible for life-support and environmental controls.
Power consumption and potential
A 30-unit CL1 server rack consumes roughly 850-1,000W but can run USB gadgets and even recently demonstrated it could play Doom after starting out with Pong.
With 120 units already powering the cloud and plans to expand in Melbourne and Singapore, this could be the start of something big for tech (and science fiction fans).