The Mind as a Machine

Scientists have been trying to grow humans’ most sophisticated organ, the human brain, in a 3D form for a decade. These lab-grown 3D brain ‘organoids’ are not fully formed nor fully functional but have, undoubtedly, advanced our understanding of how our brains develop and work. In this talk, we will explore how brain organoids have progressed over the years, delve into our efforts of enhancing the current technology and examine the importance of mimicking an entire brain.

The human brain is the most complex machine known to man, so why wouldn’t we want our robots to have one of their own? My work focusses on creating AI systems that are able to process tactile information in the same way our brains does. Building these systems allows us to both test theories about how information is processed in biology, and to look ahead towards integrating future systems directly with the brain or nervous system.

In the past, philosophical significance was granted to language as evidence of thought or personhood. It is significant that machines are now capable of imitating the use of language. Nonetheless, most of us appear to feel intuitively that large language models enact an imitation rather than a recreation of our linguistic ability: they seem empty things whose pantomime of language is not underpinned by thought, understanding or creativity. Indeed, even if a large language model were capable of imitating us perfectly, we would still distinguish between a loved one and their simulation.