The tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans has a brain just about the width of a human hair. Yet this animal’s itty-bitty organ coordinates and computes complex movements as the worm forages for food. “When I look at [C. elegans] and consider its brain, I’m really struck by the profound elegance and efficiency,” says Daniela Rus, a computer scientist at MIT. Rus is so enamored with the worm’s brain that she cofounded a company, Liquid AI, to build a new type of artificial intelligence inspired by it.
Rus is part of a wave of researchers who think that making traditional AI more brainlike could create leaner, nimbler and perhaps smarter technology.