Fruit fly beats advanced AI at chess in just 11 moves — and that’s just the startA fruit fly has just bested one of the world’s top AI models at chess — the latest wild feat for the insect after its brain was mapped and shared online.Shane Galvin — NY Postless than 2 min readSeptember 20, 2026 - 8:46AMAI may not be so superintelligent after all.The lowly fruit fly just beat one of the world’s most advanced AI models at chess, the NY Post reports.Be the first to know when news breaks. Download our new appThat’s just one of dozens of wild experiments that have gone viral since scientists fully mapped the neural pathways of an adult male fruit fly — whose entire brain fits on the head of a pin — and posted the data online.The threshold-crossing technology, achieved by HHMI Janelia Research in Virginia and Google Research, catalogued all 166,000 individual neurons and 25.6 million connections in the fly’s brain and made it downloadable on September 3.The fly beat Claude Opus 5 in 11 moves. Picture: @maximelabonne/XInventive nerds then used the digitised neural network to power and navigate a wide variety of contraptions, apps and games.Others you may likenewsnewsCreator Maxime Labonne hooked the mapped pathways up to a chess engine and pitted it against Claude Opus 5, which is one of the most advanced AI models on the market.The fly figured out ways to solve and compress chess that are far beyond what we could possibly comprehend.I had to stop training it because it was destroying Opus 5.Demo and model available on @huggingfacepic.twitter.com/twV5GlsGDC— Maxime Labonne (@maximelabonne) September 17, 2026 The fly delivered a checkmate in just 11 moves.One engineer created a project called Stonkfly — giving the entity a $US100 portfolio and creating a way for it to trade crypto currency.The fly has also hit the casino. Picture: FlyJackThe program simulated dopamine rushes for the fly when it made money on a trade for positive reinforcement.A Stanford student created a fighting game where she controlled one digital fly and the neural network controlled another digital fruit fly — and battled it in a king-of-the-hill style competition.I put a real fruit fly's brain in a fighting game 🪰🥊166,700 neurons wired exactly like the male fly connectome that Google & @HHMIJanelia just released. No training. It chases its opponent using the same circuit male flies use to chase females.https://t.co/EBX29IVQCDpic.twitter.com/EbZFHhb7oI— alextitonis (@alextitonis) September 11, 2026 She lost all 12 bouts.The fly has also hit the casino in a program called FlyJack. One engineer created a blackjack game for the fly-brain bets against a dealer.More CoverageMandatory AI ‘kill switch’ may be neededFrank Chung‘6-12 months’: Chilling AI warning to worldFrank ChungBut the fly’s success varies — like all gamblers — each time you run the experiment.Other users plugged the neural network into a variety of homemade robots, such as animatronic cats, crablike walkers and small drones.This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permissionMore related storiesMotor SportNew Aus MotoGP race hit by scam scandalAuthorities have issued a warning to MotoGP fans about a scam website falsely claiming to be the official ticket vendor for Adelaide’s debut race.Read moreCrimeTeen charged over extremist online contentA teenager has been charged with allegedly spreading violent extremist content online and possessing child abuse material, following a tip-off from the FBI.Read moreHackingStudent info stolen in school cyber attackHackers have stolen the medical records, bank details and photographs of students at an Aussie school dating back to 2015, following a cyber attack.Read more