Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a partnership with The Biological Computing Company (TBC), a San Francisco-based startup that uses living neurons to enhance artificial intelligence (AI) models. Founded in 2022 by neurosurgeons Alex Ksendzovsky and Jon Pomeraniec, TBC operates a lab in Mission Bay, where 35 employees work with rat neurons and human stem cells. The company’s technology involves fusing approximately 100,000 living neurons with a grid of 4,096 microelectrodes, developed by the Swiss biotech firm 3Brain. These neurons process visual data, and the resulting patterns are translated into a lightweight software layer—less than 0.1% of the total model weight—which is then integrated with an open-source video generator, described by TBC as "frontier," though its name is not yet public. The partnership with AWS begins on Tuesday, September 22, offering selected customers a limited preview of the model. Previously, the technology was only accessible through neocloud Bluesky Compute. TBC claims the system processes information five times faster and reduces costs by 80% compared to traditional models. The technology will be deployed on AWS Trainium, Amazon SageMaker AI, and the AWS Marketplace. TBC aims to integrate its approach with existing standards in generative AI, making visual models more efficient. Amazon is drawn to the technology because it does not require any special biological hardware on the customer’s side—everything runs on standard infrastructure. The focus on video as the first application area was suggested by Jeff Dean, a well-known AI researcher and investor in TBC. Video processing allows for quick demonstrations of the technology's benefits, as the field has established clear benchmarks. AWS also collaborates with Cortical Labs in Melbourne, which sells a "biological computer" for $35,000, offering "Wetware as a Service" with embedded living hardware. TBC raised over $50 million in 2026, including a $25 million funding round that was kept confidential until recently. However, no independent benchmarks have confirmed the startup’s performance claims, and TBC has not disclosed the open-source model used for comparison. Experts like Deap Ubhi have raised concerns about scalability, particularly regarding the ability to maintain consistency in long video sequences—such as ten minutes or an hour—remains untested. Additionally, there are unresolved ethical questions about whether the living neurons used in the system experience a form of pain when subjected to electrical stimulation.