What is organoid intelligence?

Smirnova and colleagues coined it in Frontiers in Science on February 28, 2023, to "establish OI as a form of genuine biological computing that harnesses brain organoids" in an ethically responsible manner. A precursor used 2D cultures rather than organoids: in the 2022 DishBrain study in Neuron, cultured neurons embodied in a simulated Pong game learned to keep the rally going. 2D neuron cultures, such as DishBrain or Cortical Labs' CL1, are distinct from 3D organoids.

Less than the headlines. In a 2026 Bristol study in Frontiers in AI, three human forebrain organoids on FinalSpark's Neuroplatform classified Braille letters at 83%, but a classifier with no organoids scored 82%. The organoids helped mainly when inputs were corrupted, and the authors frame the work as encoding and decoding, not organoid learning; see our analysis.

In February 2026, a UC Santa Cruz team reported in Cell Reports that mouse-derived organoids trained on cart-pole went from 4.5% success under random training to 46% with adaptive feedback, but performance dropped back to baseline after 45 minutes of rest.

Moral status, donor consent and where sentience could begin. Smirnova et al. build "embedded ethics" into the definition of the program rather than treating it as an afterthought.

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