The development of neural networks to create artificial intelligence in computers was originally inspired by how biological systems work. These “neuromorphic” networks, however, run on hardware that looks nothing like a biological brain, which limits performance.

Now, researchers from Osaka University and Hokkaido University plan to change this by creating neuromorphic “wetware.” The work is published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

While neural-network models have achieved remarkable success in applications such as image generation and cancer diagnosis, they still lag far behind the general processing abilities of the human brain. In part, this is because they are implemented in software using traditional computer hardware that is not optimized for the millions of parameters and connections that these models typically require.