China is developing an artificial womb and there are robots that treat the fetus in the artificial womb to monitor its development until it becomes a baby. The team of scientists in the Bamboo Curtain country predicts this technology will be widely used for baby care in the future.
Inside a cube filled with nutrient-rich liquid, a developing embryo is seen. Not far from the cube, there is a robotic nanny who takes care of it and carefully monitors the health of the fetus.
This is not a normal environment for an embryo to grow. This embryo is contained in a womb that is completely man-made, and the babysitting robot that cares for it is driven by AI or artificial intelligence.
According to scientists at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, this breakthrough in the future will facilitate the development of the fetus to the baby and eliminate the need for pregnancy. Artificial wombs and fetal nurse robots are also claimed to increase the safety of developing embryos.
Quoted from IFL Science, this machine has been tested to treat mouse fetuses, and the process is described in their peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Biomedical Engineering.
"The device will not only help better understand the origin of life and human embryonic development, but also provide a theoretical basis for solving the problem of birth defects and other major reproductive health problems," the researchers said.
"The in vitro embryo culture online monitoring system developed in this paper can track and record the morphological characteristics of the developmental process without affecting embryonic development, and provide a basis for evaluation of embryo development and optimization of in vitro culture systems," they continued.
This may sound crazy and feel like sheer science fiction fantasy. But scientists explain that this idea is trying to improve the method of developing the fetus in an artificial womb. The current technology requires human officers to continuously monitor and document its characteristics.
With developmental biologists allowed to develop embryos for more than 14 days in most countries following strict ethical review, this rate of delivery is a limiting factor for studying developmental disorders. According to them, an automated system capable of carrying multiple embryos could be the answer to scale up.
To do this, the researchers developed a long-term embryo culture device. The device involves a complex system of fluid reservoirs, in which the embryo develops, assisted by a series of fluid controllers and supplied with oxygen.
On top of the culture is an optical device capable of enlarging embryos and monitoring them in impressive detail, providing important growth information to AI caregivers. Based on this information, the AI could even rank embryos on overall health and potency, if the researchers so wished.
It is important to note that at this time, the technology has only been performed on mice. There is no guarantee that this tool can be analogous to humans. Even international law currently prohibits such experiments. As a result, the machine is currently being optimized using animal embryos.