What? Seriously. A university press release highlighting the team’s work had this to say: How’s it work? It’s actually pretty simple. The researchers use the dead locust’s ear in the exact same way they’d typically use a microphone. Instead of wiring up a human-made electronic device, the team just wires up Mother Nature’s work in a similar fashion. According to team lead Ben Maoz: Quick take: This is pretty rad. We’ve seen scientists create some strange and wonderful cyborgs by combining insect biology with robotics before. Just check out this 2017 article about a team of researchers who developed a method by which to control living dragonflies remotely like drones. But this new locust-cyborg research is amazing in its own right because, rather than control the motor functions of a living creature, it demonstrates how AI can harvest existing biological technology in a piecemeal fashion to create a functioning machine a la carte. Necromancy? In this economy?? Actually, it’s hard to imagine a more cost-effective way to build a robot army than to design inexpensive systems that could, for example, be para-dropped into a given geographical location with the ability to scavenge their own body parts. How terrifying is that? You can read the whole paper here.
