An artificial neural network made of DNA can recognize numbers written using molecules, a new study finds.
These new findings suggest that DNA neural networks could also recognize other patterns of molecules, such as ones signaling disease, researchers add.
In artificial neural networks, components dubbed neurons are fed data and cooperate to solve a problem, such as recognizing handwriting. The neural net repeatedly adjusts the behavior of its neurons and sees if these new patterns of behavior are better at solving the problem. Over time, the network discovers which patterns are best at computing solutions. It then adopts these as defaults, mimicking the process of learning in the human brain.