'Sentient' cells in a petri dish taught to play Pong - Next Best

Next time you're getting your ass kicked at Fortnite or online chess, it could be at the metaphorical hands of a petri dish of brain cells. Scientists in Australia taught'sentient' cells to play Pong in just minutes, according to a paper published last week in journal Neuron. "What machines can't do is learn things very quickly," study leader Brett Kagan told AFP. "If you need a machine learning algorithm to learn something, it requires thousands of data samples. But if you ask a human, or train a dog, a dog can learn a trick in two or three tries." A mix of embryonic brain cells from mice and human neurons from adult stem cells were grown on top of electrodes that could deliver electric pulses. Rather than reward successful play with dopamine, which was too slow, the cells instead got regular and predictable electrical signals.