China Claims It Uploaded a Monkey Brain to a Supercomputer

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China Claims It Uploaded a Monkey Brain to a Supercomputer—Possibly Bringing Us Closer to the Singularity

Nov 19, 2025 11:34 AM

If this neuromorphic machine is real, it’s a milestone for neuroscience—and a test of what AI can and can’t replace.

Researchers in China recently made an astonishing announcement: They’d created a supercomputer modeled on a monkey’s brain.

Researchers at the National Key Laboratory of Brain-Computer Intelligence at Zhejiang University dubbed the supercomputer Darwin Monkey, or “Wukong,” after the mythological primate that was one of the chief inspirations behind the Dragon Ball Z character, Goku.

The scientists designed their machine to mimic the brain of a macaque, a type of monkey often used in scientific research, because it exhibits human-like intelligence and cognition, according to a university press release originally written in Chinese and translated into English. They say it’s “a step toward more advanced brain-like intelligence.”

Wukong consists of over two billion spiking neurons in an artificial neural network, which imitate biological neurons by communicating with each other through electrical pulses referred to as spikes. The supercomputer also includes 100 billion synapses, or the area where two neurons connect, allowing them to “communicate” with each other by passing a signal back and forth.

That makes Wukong potentially the largest neuromorphic, or brain-like, computer in the world. Because these machines mimic biological circuitry, they’re highly energy efficient. Traditional supercomputers torch through multiple megawatts of power; meanwhile, Wukong is able to run on about 2,000 watts, not dissimilar from a household appliance.

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