Removing Some 'A' from AI: Embodied Cultured Networks

摘要

We embodied networks of cultured biological neurons in simulation and in robotics. This is a new research paradigm to study learning, memory, and information processing in real time: the Neurally-Controlled Animat. Neural activity was subject to detailed electrical and optical observation using multi-electrode arrays and microscopy in order to access the neural correlates of ani-mat behavior. Neurobiology has given inspiration to AI since the advent of the perceptron and consequent artificial neural networks, developed using local properties of individual neurons. We wish to continue this trend by studying the network processing of ensembles of living neurons that lead to higher-level cognition and intelligent behavior.