Ithai holds a very deep interest in neurobiology from both a scientific and engineering perspective. He is a neurobiologist and synthetic biologist, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on the tiny (1mm-long) nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, taking advantage of its relatively simple nervous system to unravel molecular and cellular underpinnings of presumed early precursors of intelligence. Concomitantly, the amenability of C.elegans to genetic manipulation makes it possible to reconfigure its neural circuits, and thus incorporate human design into its behaviour, opening the way for a new animal-based form of AI. He is currently combining all these strands to study the foundations of neural function both by exploring the basic nervous system of C. elegans and by engineering new synaptic connections into this system.

At ICA4, Ithai attempts to collectively conceptualize an imaginative, yet concrete, animal AI archetype, and use it to contemplate the significance and foreseeable consequences of human-endowed animal intelligence.

Listen to Ithai as he explains more about neurobiology and the work he's been doing through an ICA4 podcast and interviewed by Mike Livermore: