Not entirely roboty
In view of the fact that every fly could work a bit as a writing tool, the researchers started experimenting with multiple pens, which shows that it is possible to coordinate multiple birds at the same time. They also took a group of flying and each directed them separately, where they switched between a smiley-face pattern and a linear formation.
Finally, the researchers placed a ball in the housing and guided the flies to it, and discovered that they would communicate with the ball and move them. As soon as the fly began to interact with the ball, the researchers were able to raise the fly to move it, sometimes for more than a meter. There was nothing about the ball that would probably be interesting for the fly, and the fly did not get a reward for moving it.
There were even a number of indications that the flies, although largely powered by stereotypical reactions to specific stimuli, were not entirely slaves to instain. To begin with, there was the fact that none of the experiments achieved 100 percent accuracy. When several birds were led through an experiment, they were also the tendency to wander more often when they were close to another fly, which suggests that they could change their reaction to one stimulus if they were confronted with a competitive one.
All this means that these animals can usually react a lot like robots, but they are absolutely not roboty. There is a big difference between the use of electronics (even to run an AI model) and use a brain. Nevertheless, the research team argues that there is potential use for remote -controlled flies and determined that the flies may be able to wear a milligram stuff, about the same as their own body weight. That is probably enough for some simple sensors and electronics. It is clear that the optical operating system is kept separate.
Pnas2025. DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2426180122 (Over Dois).
