Why the tiny bee brain could hold the key to next-generation AI?

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have discovered that bees use flight to enhance neural signals, allowing them to recognize complex visual patterns with astonishing accuracy. This opens up new avenues for artificial intelligence (AI) — focusing on efficiency rather than massive computing power.

Bees combine their brains and bodies in surprising ways — this natural strategy could reshape AI design. (Source: Shutterstock)

The team built a digital model of the bee brain, showing how movement during flight shapes visual information and generates unique electrical signals in the brain, allowing bees to quickly and energy-efficiently recognize familiar features in their environment.

Instead of relying on large computer networks, future robots could learn to gather information through movement—like bees—to process images more efficiently. This is a major step toward developing smart yet lightweight AI.

Professor James Marshall, Director of the Centre for Machine Intelligence at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study, said: “In this study, we have demonstrated that a small, efficient system – despite being the result of millions of years of evolution – can perform much more complex calculations than we previously thought possible.”

Professor Marshall asserts the future of research: "Tapping into nature's best intelligent designs will open the door to the next generation of AI, driving advances in robotics, self-driving cars and real -world learning."

Bees need only a minimal amount of nerve cells to distinguish their surroundings. (Source: Shutterstock)

The bee brain model was tested on visual tests such as distinguishing between plus and multiplication signs. When simulating the bee's scanning strategy (focusing only on the lower half), recognition performance improved significantly. The model was even able to recognize human faces with a very small artificial neural network.

Professor Lars Chittka, Professor of Sensory and Behavioural Ecology at Queen Mary University of London, added: "Here, we determine the minimum number of neurons needed for difficult visual discrimination tasks and find that this number is surprisingly small, even for complex tasks such as human face recognition. Thus, the insect microbrain has advanced computational capabilities."

By combining findings from behavior, how insect brains work, and what computational models show, the study suggests that studying small insect brains can reveal the fundamental rules of intelligence. These findings not only help us gain a deeper understanding of cognition, but also have important implications for the development of new technologies.

Minh Hoan

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/tai-sao-bo-nao-ong-nho-be-co-the-nam-giu-chia-khoa-cho-ai-the-he-tiep-theo-ar962833.html