Equipped with AI technology, robotic caregivers can monitor, care for, and even evaluate and rank embryos during laboratory nurturing.
A research team in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, eastern China, believes that a artificial womb for safely developing embryos and a robotic caregiver to monitor and care for them could be feasible in the future, provided legal frameworks allow it. This could represent a breakthrough for childbirth in a country facing its lowest birth rates in decades, according to SCMP on January 30.
Specifically, experts have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of monitoring and caring for embryos as they develop into fetuses in an artificial womb environment. The new research was published in the journal Biomedical Engineering.
Artificial womb with AI caregiver. (Photo: Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology)
In this study, the AI caregiver has only cared for a large number of animal embryos. However, similar technology could allow women to avoid pregnancy altogether. Instead, fetuses would develop safely and effectively outside the body.
Artificial womb or “long-term embryo culture device” is a container with mouse embryos developing in chambers filled with nutrient-rich fluid, according to the research team led by Professor Sun Haixuan at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Previously, the development process of each embryo had to be manually observed, recorded, and adjusted. This was labor-intensive and unsustainable as the scale of research increased.
The robotic caregiver can monitor embryos in unprecedented detail, day and night. AI technology helps detect the slightest changes in embryos and adjust CO2 levels, nutrients, and other environmental input factors.
The system can even rank embryos based on health and developmental potential. When an embryo shows significant defects or dies, the system alerts technicians to remove it from the chamber, similar to a womb.
Current international laws prohibit research on human embryos older than two weeks. However, studying later stages is crucial as many mysteries remain about the physiology of typical human embryonic development, according to Sun and colleagues.
They stated that the new technology not only aids in understanding the origins of life and human embryo development but also provides a theoretical basis for addressing congenital defects and other major reproductive health issues.
The robotic caregiver can identify, track embryos, and capture ultra-sharp images at varying depths by rapidly switching lens types, according to the Suzhou research team. AI technology also allows the robot to detect and learn from new phenomena that humans might overlook or not notice. This could help accelerate the optimization and iteration of long-term embryo culture technology in laboratories.
China is facing a significant decline in birth rates, with the number of newborns dropping nearly by half in the five years since 2016. Last year’s net population increase was the lowest in six decades, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.
Surveys indicate that young Chinese women are increasingly overlooking traditional priorities regarding marriage and children, despite the one-child policy being abolished and the government offering various incentives.
In fact, low birth rates are a global concern, particularly in developed societies. When Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, sparked a discussion on social media about “population collapse” a few weeks ago, some tech experts suggested that laboratory wombs could be a good solution as they would alleviate the pain, risks, and costs of childbirth for women.
