Artificial Intelligence Is Nothing Like a Brain — or a Mind
Neurons share basic mechanisms, but almost all other features vary both between types of neurons and individual onesAt Quanta, science writer Yasemin Saplakoglu offers some thoughts on the claims that the brain is like a computer:
Image Credit: iconimage - When you poke at even the most general comparison between biological and artificial intelligence — that both learn by processing information across layers of networked nodes — their similarities quickly crumble.
Artificial neural networks are “huge simplifications,” said Leo Kozachkov, a postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research who will soon lead a computational neuroscience lab at Brown University. “When you look at a picture of a real biological neuron, it’s this wicked complicated thing.” These wicked complicated things come in many flavors and form thousands of connections to one another, creating dense, thorny networks whose behaviors are controlled by a menagerie of molecules released on precise timescales.
“AI Is Nothing Like a Brain, and That’s OK,” April 30, 2025
AI networks are huge simplifications?
In your brain, 86 billion neurons chitchat with one another in complex networks. They communicate by tossing molecules called neurotransmitters into the spaces between cells and catching them with arms called dendrites. These molecules can shut down a neuron or spur it to activate, which triggers a sharp burst of electricity that flows down its long tail (axon). That then triggers branches (axon terminals) on the other end of the cell to send a new wave of molecules to the next neurons in the network.
All neurons — in the brain and beyond — share this basic mechanism, but practically every other feature varies among neuron types and even individual neurons of the same type. “Nothing Like a Brain“
Even simple animals, as it happens, have complex neurons with complex behavior. This is C. elegans, a worm chosen for research for its radical simplicity:
Saplakoglu interviews and profiles a number of neuroscientists who offer various opinions about how AI could be more like a brain but concludes “they’re not the same — and probably never will be.”
Thought vs. computation
Coming at the matter from a philosophical perspective, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, first author of The Immortal Mind (Worthy, June 3, 2025), offers some thoughts on the comparison between the human brain and a computer:
The brain can be modeled as a computer, but that does not mean that thought is computation. Thought is the opposite of computation, because thought is characterized by meaning, and computation is a mechanical process that never has meaning of its own.
When you interact with AI, you are really interacting with software designers and programmers, not computers. The only meaning in AI is the meaning humans have put into it.
Machines don’t know anything. Your thermostat doesn’t know what the temperature it is. Your watch doesn’t know what time it is. Books don’t understand the stories in them. AI doesn’t have opinions.
AI is not computer intelligence. It is human intelligence, disguised and leveraged by computation.
The Wizard of Oz is the prototype of AI—human intelligence hidden behind a machine’s curtain. To understand and use AI safely we must be like Toto and pull back the curtain.
We are constantly hearing predictions that someday soon, AI will achieve consciousness but there are good reasons for thinking that unlikely. AI, Egnor notes, is actually the opposite of consciousness: “Computation is a blank slate on which we— who are conscious— express ourselves.”
What people are saying about The Immortal Mind:
The Immortal Mind is an important new book advancing thought about that old question: Is there a difference between the mind and the brain?… While the topics of the mind and the brain can be complicated, this book is written so well that it is never ponderous or difficult. Stories, including sometimes moving stories of Dr. Egnor’s experiences as a neurosurgeon and of his life, as well as clear explanations in addition to the narrative trail help to make the book readable and compelling. Not easily forgotten, The Immortal Mind is a book that continues to provoke contemplation after the last page is read.
– Stephanie West Allen, JD, teacher, writer, conflict resolution professional, former lawyer and professor
Editor’s note: Pre-order The Immortal Mind, by Michael Egnor and Denyse O’Leary, and get a sneak peek exclusive excerpt from the book as well as the full digital book anthology Minding the Brain.
