- Pink Inference (pinkinference.com) is an open-source effort to replicate Cortical Labs’ DishBrain neuron-on-chip system, promising a cheaper, more configurable interface and aiming to beat RL benchmarks like MuJoCo Half-Cheetah (Cell 2022; PMID 37040493).  
- Channel participants debated whether cultured “wetware” can ever rival GPU-scale AI: advocates cite neurons’ unmatched energy efficiency and innate general intelligence, while skeptics highlight electrode-density limits, vascularization hurdles, and the absence of a credible scaling roadmap.  
- An alternative proposal—selectively breeding or genetically enhancing animals for higher intelligence—was argued to be more practical because animals already supply integrated motor, sensory, immune, and vascular systems, bypassing the need for high-bandwidth silicon interfaces.  
- Technical bottlenecks for in-vitro neuronal computing include current MEA arrays (e.g., MaxOne: 26 k electrodes, only 8 independently controllable), lack of high-resolution optogenetic stimulation arrays, neuron death, immune compromise, and the unsolved challenge of high-fidelity “connectome write-in / write-out.”  
- Reservoir computing with living neurons was criticized as “insanely wasteful” because only the output layer is trained; participants questioned whether energy-minimization principles alone can yield useful computation without backpropagation-style mechanisms.  
- Proposed scaling solutions include continuous perfusion of neuronal stem cells, genomic encoding of initial connectomes, and “playback learning” where optically recorded activity patterns from one culture are re-projected onto another to transfer function without retraining from scratch.  
- A practical workaround for 3-D organoid interfacing is to stimulate spatially separated “feeder” neurons that remain synaptically connected to the main culture, avoiding direct deep-tissue electrodes.  
- Human hippocampal prosthesis trials (Berger et al.) achieved up to 37 % memory-function improvement in patients with disease-related impairment, raising open questions about enhancement beyond healthy baselines and the regulatory barriers to elective cognitive augmentation.