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Artificial intelligence aficionados such as Singularity-chasing Ray Kurzweil might be working on fusing together man and machine, but scientists in the UK have started on a smaller scale, with the goal of meshing together bee and drone.

Launched in 2012, the Green​ Brain Project aims to create the first accurate computer model of a honey bee brain, and transplant that onto a UAV.

The project, based out of the University of Sheffield and University of Sussex, seeks to raise awareness of the declining population of honey bees worldwide, as well as to advance our knowledge of AI and honey bee cognition.

While bees have 960,000 neurons, compared to the 100 millions neurons in a human brain, scientists have ​discovered that a honey bee’s brain is in fact impressively responsive and adaptive.

Green​ Brain Project (external Link)

About the Project

The development of an ‘artificial brain’ is one of the greatest challenges in artificial intelligence, and its success will have innumerable benefits in many and diverse fields from robotics to cognitive psychology. Most research effort is spent on modelling vertebrate brains. Yet, smaller brains can display comparable cognitive sophistication while being more experimentally accessible and amenable to modelling.