Lab-Grown Brain Organoids Are Playing Video Games
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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The Wired Newsroom is known for award-winning reporting on how technology shapes our world. On Wired's Uncanny Valley, we take that curiosity even further. Each week, journalists from Wired break down the biggest stories in tech while speaking directly with the people building, challenging, and reshaping the future. Is the AI boom sustainable? How do you protect your privacy in an age of constant surveillance? Uncanny Valley tackles the questions driving today's tech debates and lighting up your group chats. Listen to new episodes every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hi, this is Kylie Brakeman. Angela Geratana.
What is an organoid and how are brain organoids created from human cells?
Jeremy Colhane. Patrick McDonald.
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Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm Oz Voloshin. There's only one way to put this.
Why are brain organoids considered the most fascinating type of organoid?
I read one of the craziest articles in recent memory, recently in Wired. It's called AI is Dead, Organoids are Alive. And it's a look inside scientists' attempt to grow computers powered by human cells grown in a lab. Written by Claire L. Evans, a journalist, a speculative fiction writer, and a musician with the band Yacht. who also had some remarkable experiences reporting this piece that she's here to share with us today. Claire, thank you for joining.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
So talk about organoids and this quote that you have early in the piece, I'm going to let you in on a secret. Every cell in your body has the potential to get smarter.
Yes, that's technically true. You can take any cell from the human body, normally skin cells, but also hair, follicle cells, teeth, blood, these all work. You can introduce those cells to a special cocktail of proteins. Those cells will revert to their embryonic state. They will become stem cells. They will become pluripotent, which means capable of producing, turning into many other different types of cells. And you can turn those cells into neurons and from there build all kinds of interesting things.
So what is an organoid?
Okay, well, big picture, an organoid is essentially a small spherical glob of human cells that reproduces on some different levels, structural, molecular, developmental levels, some aspect of the body part from which those cells were drawn. So you can think of it as like a mini model of a human organ made from the cells that constitute that organ. You can make stomach organoids, for example. You can make cardiac organoids. You can make tear gland organoids.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:41
2
What is an organoid and how are brain organoids created from human cells?
1:41–2:38
3
Why are brain organoids considered the most fascinating type of organoid?
2:38–5:14
4
How are brain organoids grown on micro‑electrode arrays and used for basic computing tasks?
5:14–7:43
5
What did the researchers discover when they trained organoids to play simple video games like Pong?
7:43–9:15
6
What ethical and philosophical questions arise from giving living cells computational abilities?
9:15–10:56
7
Can brain organoids ever become conscious or develop a sense of self?
10:56–12:37
8
What are the biggest technical hurdles (e.g., vascularization, scaling) for future organoid‑based computers?
12:37–53:31
Speakers
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