Most conversations about the future of technology are framed entirely around Artificial Intelligence. But what if the next massive leap in computing isn't artificial at all? Cortical Labs is pioneering a new paradigm known as "Synthetic Biological Intelligence," developing systems that merge living, lab-grown neurons with traditional silicon hardware.

Powered by real brain cells cultivated from just 10 millilitres of the founder's own blood, these biological computing units consume the energy of a basic pocket calculator, yet possess the ability to learn in real-time. Cortical Labs has already demonstrated this by teaching 200,000 neurons to play video games like Pong and Doom. Now, they are transitioning from a sci-fi kitchen experiment into a commercial enterprise, raising capital to scale their hardware manufacturing right here in Malaysia.

Founder and CEO of Cortical Labs Dr. Chong Hon Weng joins us to unpack the realities of biological computing, the physical energy limits of traditional AI, and the ethics of computing with living neurons.

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