Associate Professor Kohei Nakajima (University of Tokyo), a member of this research project, in collaboration with Masayuki Ushio, the lead author from Kyoto University (currently a principal investigator at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) and others, reported that networks existing in ecosystems have computational power and that this power can be used as a computational resource.

In this study, they have discovered the computational power of ecological networks, which can be used as a resource for AI technologies. They have called this approach “ecological reservoir computing” and developed two types of proof-of-concept ecological reservoir computing. One is a computer-based approach simulating the ecosystem dynamics, while the other uses the real-time population dynamics of Tetrahymena thermophila. The study suggests a link between high biodiversity and high computational power, leading to new values of previously unknown biodiversity. The research may lead to the invention of novel types of computers and offer clues to how ecosystem dynamics are maintained.

Bibliography:
[1] Ushio, Masayuki, Kazufumi Watanabe, Yasuhiro Fukuda, Yuji Tokudome, and Kohei Nakajima. 2023. “Computational Capability of Ecological Dynamics.” Royal Society Open Science 10 (4): 221614. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221614.

Related Links:
Press release from KyotoU: https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/research-news/2023-04-19

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