Fruit Fly Brain Map Powers Minecraft, Driving, and Crypto...

Last updated Sep 11, 2026

Earlier this month, Google Research and HHMI Janelia released the largest brain connectome yet, mapping over 166,000 neurons and millions of connections in an adult male fruit fly's central nervous system. Community experiments quickly followed, with the model controlling characters in Minecraft and Doom, piloting a simulated BMW with turn signals, and even making buy-sell decisions with $100 in Bitcoin guided by dopamine neurons. While some built fun challenges like Beat Saber, others worried about stress on the model and created peaceful 'fruit fly heaven' worlds for endless flying and feeding. Researchers note it's a static wiring diagram from electron microscopy, not a conscious brain, and praise the open dataset for sparking creative scientific exploration.

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