It is plausible that a human neural organoid could one day be created that would act like a brain and have some intelligence, Hank Greely, a professor of law and genetics at Stanford University who specializes in ethical, legal and social issues arising from advances in the biosciences, told Live Science, but even then we only have a very limited knowledge of what generates consciousness or intelligence in our own brains.

“The number of neurons connected together does not make something intelligent. If I piled a million pieces of cut stone together, I would not necessarily have the Chartres Cathedral; I’d probably have just a pile of cut stones. It is the architecture, the connections, the environment of the brain cells that create an actual brain,” Greely said. “Organoids are definitely not ‘mini-brains’. They are not organized the way brains are, they do not contain the same large number of cell types that brains have, and they aren’t communicating constantly with a body through inputs and outputs.”