Two babies have been born after a robot guided by a Playstation 5 controller fertilised human eggs. The procedure, completed in Barcelona, involved student engineer Eduard Alba manoeuvring a tiny IVF needle carrying sperm cells, which were then deposited into eggs. This new style of fertilisation, created by startup company Overture Life, intends to make it possible for women to become pregnant in a cheaper and more accessible way as in-vitro fertilisation, or IVF, can cost thousands.
IVF treatment involves specialists removing an egg from the woman’s ovaries and fertilising it with male sperm in a laboratory. It can be hard to achieve successful fertilisation first time, creating a large bill for hopeful parents. Speaking at MIT Technology Review, Alba said,” I was calm in that exact moment, I thought it’s just one more experiment, thanks to this, Overture can now claim to have given birth to two healthy girls, who are the first to ever be conceived by a robot”.
Experts believe, however, that there is a lot more research required before this style of fertilisation becomes common. Others are less convinced, director of Columbia University’s fertility clinic Zev Williams said that at this current point in time, humans are better at fertilisation than machines. Meanwhile the startup is looking to progress with their research into sperm-injecting robots and have already raised $37 million for further research, with a large backing from former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.
