Jeff Bezos Is Funding a Wild Hunt for the Brain’s ‘Core Algorithm’

Article excerpt

Jeff Bezos is backing Flourish, a neuroscience startup that has raised $500 million to reverse-engineer how the brain actually works, hoping to unlock secrets that could revolutionize artificial intelligence. The company, now valued at $2.5 billion, is taking an unusual approach: rather than tweaking existing deep-learning systems, researchers are studying real neurons under microscopes to find the brain's fundamental operating principles. The bet is audacious: that understanding biology could leap-frog years of incremental AI improvements. Whether decoding neural circuits will actually yield the breakthroughs Bezos and others are betting on remains an open question.