‘Both disgusting and awesome’ Aussie brain cell data centre extends to SingaporeA Melbourne biotech firm has begun powering artificial intelligence with human brain cells, and the implications are only just emerging.Samina Rakhshani2 min readAugust 18, 2026 - 1:09PMThe first biological data centre outside Australia has opened in Singapore, marking an eerie phase of AI progress where human brain cells are used to power AI. Picture: SuppliedA biological data centre has opened in Singapore, marking an eerie phase where human brain cells replace chips to power AI from a petri dish. Aussie tech start-up, Cortical Labs, which made headlines earlier this year for growing human brain cells that played shooter games, has partnered with a Singaporean university and data centre company called DayOne to launch Asia’s first biological data centre. Described as a prototype, inside this new lab, scientists will supervise the growth of human brain cells that process information for AI systems. The announcement came shortly after a US-based company, Parasma, announced it was developing algorithms and infrastructure to let human brain cells process data. The company’s CEO, Sean Cole had earlier collaborated with Cortical Labs to grow human brain cells that played a 1993 shooter game called Doom. Parasma confirmed they had run tests where the human brain cells were able to solve defined tasks, and their next-token prediction was 90 per cent accurate. Others you may likenewsnewsIn a difficult nonlinear test, the brain cells were 78.1 per cent accurate, outperforming the 75 per cent limit of standard silicon computer chips.The centre was launched with public, academia and tech sector representatives in attendance, who watched a live demo of the wild system. Picture: OneDayThe news has sparked a frenzy of viral reactions on social media, with many drawing chilling parallels to The Matrix. Users were quick to reference the Keanu Reeves sci-fi classic, where a dystopian reality sees human bodies exploited as living batteries to power a massive, simulated machine world. “Isn’t this just the beginning of the Matrix?” one Instagram user wrote. “Hello Matrix,” another user said. Some X users were genuinely impressed by the huge development. “This is wild. From training brain cells to play Doom to using them for next-token-prediction – biological computing is getting seriously interesting,” she wrote.Scientists are optimisticWhile the internet is critical of the new development, experts involved in running a biological data centre prototype say the new biological technology could help researchers with drug discovery, cybersecurity and fraud detection.The latest AI venture between Melbourne-based Cortical Labs, Singaporean data centre company DayOne and the National University of Singapore is also aimed at helping with energy efficiency. ‘A major milestone’: the human brain cells use ‘a fraction of the power’ used by digital computers. Picture: SuppliedSilicon chips that are now used to process information for AI systems are power-hungry microchips. By replacing them with brain-like organoids, the new approach is set to bridge the energy efficiency gap. These brain cells use “only a fraction of the power required by digital computers”, the joint statement claimed. “This prototype marks a major milestone in DayOne and Cortical Labs’ ambition to develop Singapore’s first large-scale biological data centre — and the first of its kind outside Australia,” it read. Cortical Labs founder, Hon Weng Chong said he planned to replicate the same model on a global scale, starting with Asia’s innovation hub for the data centre industry, ie, Singapore. “Our aim is to uncover the use cases where that advantage matters most, in areas such as drug discovery, humanoid robotics, cybersecurity and fraud detection,” he said. “The establishment of this prototype shifts the conversation from research to commercial application.”He argued the method was a sustainable solution to using “technologies humankind depends on”.When Cortical first announced the opening of a biological AI data centre in Melbourne, it was received with mixed reactions. More CoverageAus ‘mass surveillance exercise’ slammedSamina Rakhshani‘Combatant’: Trump aide’s exit sparks fearSamina Rakhshani“That’s both disgusting and awesome,” one user wrote on LinkedIn. The Singaporean university’s director of neurobiology program, Rickie Patani, said the partnership promised efficient alternatives to silicon, while also helping the researchers track learning and adaptations on a biological level, via brain cells. “It gives us a real route to accelerate drug discovery and neurological disease research, turning laboratory insight into real-world impact far faster than we could before,” she said. 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