Watch an AI Modeled After a Worm's Brain Park a Tiny Car Like a Pro

Watch an AI Modeled After a Worm's Brain Park a Tiny Car Like a Pro

5 years ago
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https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vba4nj/worm-brain-ai-park-car

The humble nematode, also known as C. elegans, is the only organism on Earth to have its entire nervous system and brain mapped out like a wiring schematic. We understand this little worm so well, in fact, that scientists are now trying to digitize its peabrain for use in machine learning experiments—in other words, creating worm-inspired AI.

Recreating a worm brain with a series of interconnected computational nodes, referred to as neural networks, is often an exercise in minimalism. Most recently, a team of researchers led by Ramin Hasani at TU Wein in Vienna succeeded in training a network made up of just 12 digital neurons—loosely inspired by the well-understood “tap withdrawal” neural circuit in C. elegans, which controls a physical reflex to touch—to park a tiny RC car outfitted with sensors.