GPUs go biological: BBB unveils Bionode, lab-grown, living neuron compute for AI applications
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Summary
Emerging AI company Biological Black Box (BBB) has revealed its Bionode platform, which combines living lab-grown neurons with traditional computer processors to create a new AI hardware class.
Using donor human stem cells and rat-derived cells, the Baltimore-based firm grows new neurons that act as computer chips to offer a low-power and adaptive alternative to current Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
The CEO of BBB, Alex Ksendzovsky, stated that the new system offered more efficient computer vision and improved Large Language Model (LLM) training, thus advancing Nvidia’s dominant silicon-based GPUs.
The Bionode platform uses a dish of 4,096 electrodes on which the lab-grown neurons are wired into the computing system, with each dish containing hundreds of thousands of the neurons.
The company is now moving to scale its technology having relocated to the Bay Area.