AI, monkey brains, and the virtue of small thinking illuminate how the brain processes sight

What does it take to make AI that can pass as human? Try massive clusters of supercomputers. To build human-like intelligence, computer scientists think big. However, for neuroscientists who want to understand how real brains work, today's AI only goes so far, as it replaces one deeply complicated system (the brain) with another (AI). How, then, do we figure out the inner workings of the biological brain? To answer this question, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Assistant Professor Benjamin Cowley is thinking small.