Amazon opens access to video model developed from rat neural activity

Select Amazon Web Services customers will receive early access starting Tuesday to a video model from The Biological Computing Company, a startup building AI architectures on the firing patterns of rat brain cells. The company, which operates as TBC, is offering the model through AWS Marketplace as a limited preview with plans to expand availability to all enterprise customers soon. This marks the first time a model developed directly from live biological recording has reached a commercial cloud production environment at this scale.

A pragmatic approach within existing standards

Deap Ubhi, AWS global head of startup technology, said TBC caught Amazon's attention because its approach respects the existing architecture of generative models. Rather than trying to reinvent the transformer — the foundational unit of large language models — the company asks how current video models can be made more efficient. Ubhi noted this is not AWS's first collaboration in biological computing: the company already works with Australia's Cortical Labs, which combines lab-grown neurons with silicon chips and calls its model WAAS, "wetware as a service." Cortical also sells a "biological computer" for thousands of dollars, a low-power device intended for labs that claims to keep neurons alive for six months.

From a Baltimore lab to Amazon's cloud

TBC was founded four years ago in Baltimore, Maryland, by two neuroscientists and neurosurgeons: Alexander Ksendzovsky, who serves as chief executive, and Jon Pomeraniec, president and chief operating officer. Earlier this year the company raised $25 million in a significant Series A led by Primary Venture Partners. Shortly after the March closing, a further $25 million round was completed — an amount not previously reported — bringing total funding to more than $50 million. Last year the company opened offices and an R&D lab in San Francisco, where 35 employees operate cultures of rat brain cells and human stem cells.

How neural activity becomes code

The living cells are placed on multi-electrode arrays from 3Brain, a Swiss biotech company. Researchers deliver electrical stimulation patterns to the neurons and record their responses. TBC analyzes the resulting neural activity, extracts computational patterns and translates them into software that improves existing video models. According to Ksendzovsky, the choice of video as the first domain was driven by both scientific and practical considerations, including the physical layout of electrodes on the chip, which affects how the system interacts with the biological tissue.

Unique challenges for a field still in its infancy

Biological computing requires operating real wet labs, not just code environments: cells must be kept alive, monitored continuously, and bridged to meaningful digital information. While startups such as Cortical and TBC demonstrate progress, the gap between nature and code remains complex. The AWS integration marks a new stage, moving from lab proof-of-concept to a product accessible to developers through a standard API. However, no comparative performance benchmarks against conventional video models have been published, and the company has not disclosed its architecture or public benchmark results.