Grad Student Ports the 166,700-Neuron Fly Connectome Into Minecraft in Two Days Using GPT-6
新智元 · wechat · 2026-09-06
Georgia Tech grad student Evan Smith used GPT-6 Astra to turn the MaleCNS connectome — the complete male fruit fly CNS with 166,700 neurons and 125M synapses, a decade of work by HHMI Janelia, Cambridge and Google published in Cell on Sept 3 — into a Minecraft simulation within two days, with neural activity driving the virtual fly's flight.
The open-source (CC-BY) atlas covers central brain, optic lobes and ventral nerve cord with brain-body connections intact, plus 262 male-specific cell types. Making a wiring diagram simulate required three steps: LIF neuron dynamics, sensory input encoding, and output via the paper's fully mapped R1-R6-to-DNg13 visuomotor pathway. For comparison, OpenWorm's 302-neuron simulation took over a decade; this has 500x more neurons and was done by one student and one AI. The project signals whole-brain simulation dropping to hobbyist level, with future ports to Unity, Unreal, or robotic bodies anticipated. Elon Musk commented in the thread.
Related event: Full Fruit-Fly Connectome Runs in Minecraft, Driving an In-Game Fly(9 posts)→
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