Project summary

Organoid intelligence — living brain tissue used as a computer — has no shared tests. When a lab claims its dish-grown neurons learned something, nobody can independently check the work. I'm building the answer key: an open benchmark suite with mandatory "trick questions" (null controls) that any claim must pass, plus independent replication audits of three published claims, graded in plain language.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

1. Build benchmark suite v1 (months 1–4): open tests with null controls — session-identity controls, label-shuffle nulls, rate-only baselines, chronological splits. Everything public: tests, code, data. 2. Run three independent replication audits (months 5–10): re-run three major published organoid-intelligence claims through the battery and publish grades — pass, fail, or unclear. 3. Publish and hand off (months 11–12): final report, open release, and outreach so the tests become the field's standard homework. Success looks like: the suite used by at least one outside lab, three audits published, and null controls starting to show up in new papers.

How will this funding be used?

$75,000 for 12 months, solo: ~$54k researcher stipend, ~$8.3k self-employment tax, $3k cloud compute and storage, $1.2k software and tools, $2k travel to one workshop, ~$6.5k contingency buffer. The $40k minimum funds a 6-month pilot: the benchmark suite only.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Solo researcher. I built a brain-signal classifier on real organoid recordings that scored 100% — then my own null controls caught it recognizing recording sessions instead of real learning, and I published the failure instead of the headline, with a full open release package (data fingerprints, run tables, code, verification checklist). That's the exact skill this project needs: building the test, then letting the test grade you honestly.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The benchmarks get built but no outside lab adopts them — mitigated by designing the suite around the field's actual published claims so it's immediately useful. Or the audits all come back "unclear" — still a publishable, useful result about the state of the evidence.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

$0 — fully self-funded so far. I have grant applications pending with six other funders; this listing is not exclusive.