Virtual Fruit Fly Plays Doom

⊲ Scientific American ⊳ Researchers have published a detailed digital map of a fruit fly’s nervous system, containing more than 166,000 neurons and their connections. Developers have used the publicly available data to create AI simulations capable of playing Doom, trading bitcoin and solving Rubik’s Cube. Scientists emphasise that these experiments involve modified neural networks trained for specific tasks, rather than genuine uploaded brains. The unexpected applications have attracted public interest in neuroscience, demonstrating how open research data can inspire creative experiments combining biological intelligence and artificial intelligence.
◂ A 166,000-neuron map retrained by hobbyists shows how quickly open scientific datasets now become raw material for simulation experiments well outside the laboratory. ▸
⊲ Featured Image – Philip Hubbard/HHMI Janelia Research Campus ⊳
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