This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips | E2295
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2026
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Today’s show:
Cortical Labs is the world’s first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI).
Founder Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through how the system works and why neurons are more efficient than GPUs at reinforcement learning. (Also… is this computer alive?)
PLUS Pyka co-founder and CEO Michael Norcia explains the various uses for his autonomous aircraft, from crop-spraying drones in Brazil to a a hybrid-electric defense UAV for the military.
Guests:
Cortical Labs: ****https://corticallabs.com/
Dr. Hon Weng Chong on X: https://x.com/dr1337
Pyka: https://www.flypyka.com/
Pyka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flypyka/?hl=en
Further Reading:
2022 Pong paper in Neuron: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6
2017 Paper: “Attention is All You Need”; https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762
The “Barista Test” for Artificial Intelligence: Chris Rourk: https://medium.com/predict/the-turing-test-is-so-last-century-the-barista-test-for-artificial-general-intelligence-faf91034fa8c
Notable Links:
Playing “DOOM” on CL1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV8fSw6HaE
DayOne Data Center: https://dayonedc.com/
NeurIPS 2026 Conference: https://neurips.cc/
Neuralink: https://neuralink.com/
CliniCloud Digital Stethoscope and Thermometer: https://www.design-industry.com.au/clinicloud
Air Force Research Laboratory (AFWERX): https://afwerx.com/
Joby Aviation: https://www.jobyaviation.com/
Prime Movers Lab: https://www.primemoverslab.com/
Timestamps:
0:00 What is "biological computing"?
2:49 Cortical's new $30 million raise
4:15 The world's first biological data center
9:48 Deel - Founders scale faster on Deel. Set up payroll for any country in minutes, hire anyone anywhere, get visas handled fast, and get back to building. Visit https://deel.com/twist to learn more.
10:51 Biological computers have a learning advantage
19:43 Quo (formerly OpenPhone) - Quo gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one place. Try it free at https://quo.com/TWiST
29:15 LinkedIn Jobs - Hire right, the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off towards your job post at https://LinkedIn.com/twist
38:46 From paper airplanes to Group 4 UAVs
52:20 Introducing the DropShip defense drone
58:28 How regulations block US drones
1:00:40 Why Pyka builds everything in-house
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm a little worried about how we're going to tell people. |
| 0:02.2 | We're fusing neurons with computers. |
| 0:04.6 | The world's first biological data center. |
| 0:06.5 | When they compared it against their reinforcement learning systems, the neurons we had were 5,000 times more sample efficient. |
| 0:13.3 | Has anyone complained that you're tinkering a bit with the edges of humanity? |
| 0:17.3 | The Vatican were worried about this. |
| 0:19.2 | You do not want to create conscious systems because |
| 0:21.3 | ethically, a conscious system has the ability to suffer. And we do not want any suffering to come |
| 0:26.8 | about from any technology. This week in startups is brought to you by LinkedIn. Post your job for |
| 0:32.0 | free at LinkedIn.com slash twist, then promote it to get access to LinkedIn jobs new AI assistant. Quo, formerly open |
| 0:39.9 | phone, gives you a clean, modern way to handle every customer call, text, and thread all in one |
| 0:45.9 | place. Try it free and get 20% off your first six months at quo.com slash twist. And deal. Founders scale |
| 0:53.9 | faster on deal. Set up payroll for any country in minutes |
| 0:57.6 | hire anyone anywhere get visas handled fast and get back to building visit deal dot com slash twist |
| 1:04.6 | to learn more hello and welcome back to twist now today we're talking to a company we spoke to in |
| 1:10.2 | 2025 because i thought they were one of the most interesting startups in the entire world. |
| 1:15.3 | Called cortical labs, they are trying to fuse silicon chips that we all know and love with human neurons, bringing the biologic and the synthetic together to create a new type of computer, a biological computer. |
| 1:26.4 | I was so tickled by the idea I had to talk to them, |
| 1:28.6 | but since that first conversation, Cortical Labs has built out data centers of its biological |
| 1:33.3 | computers, which means that we now have real robust capacity to kind of bring humans and computers |
| 1:39.0 | together. So to tell us more about what's been going on over in the realm of Cortical Labs, |
| 1:43.1 | please welcome back to the show. It's my dear friend, Han. Han, how you doing? Good, thank you. It's great to chat again, Alex. And congratulations. I heard you had you baby. Yes, that's why I've been extra tired these last four months, but we're powering through just the grace of coffee. All right, so, Han, last time we talked, you had just put out your CL1, which was the first kind |
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