[The BAB project (Big Artificial Brain)]

Recent advances in neuroscience allow us to envisage the creation of an artificial brain (BAB, for Big Artificial Brain) in order to reproduce cerebral functions without having to copy individual neurons, the complex properties of which are largely beyond our present technological capabilities. As in the human brain, we intend to combine inputs, a black box ("mentipulator") and expressive outputs. The ZISC and NeuroMem neuronal chips designed by Guy Paillet, Anne Ménendez and IBM have been used to built a BAB of 1 million transversally and vertically interconnected neurons with a parallel architecture, as in the human cerebral cortex. Potential applications are multiple and highly promising.