We are very different from other researchers working on artificial life and intelligence. We recognize that the currently existing digital artificial intelligence is a poor imitation of the actions of living matter. It cannot lead to fully independent robots.
We also recognize that the bottom up approaches in synthetic biology do not yield any real animate matter. They produce inanimate prostheses.
Even worse is the case of computer simulations of living matter. For instance, in artificial neural networks, living neurons are replaced by primitive mathematical algorithms. This means that the artificial neural network is not a computer simulation of the actions of the living brain; it is a simulation of an inanimate prosthesis of the brain.
We are taking a very different approach. We define life as a particular process of chemical and structural transformation of condensed matter. Based on this definition, we create artificial living-like objects. The animation of matter is an incredibly difficult task. For this reason, our artificial organisms are very primitive. They will never compare to real biological cells. However, we have discovered that particular animate-like structures can perform functions similar to those of real biological brains. They can generate their own voluntary actions, and perceive reality and make decisions like real animals.