SOSV’s O’Sullivan says AI can learn from brain’s speed, energy efficiency in Rothman chat

• SOSV’s Sean O’Sullivan hosted a fireside chat with Nobel laureate James Rothman on brain-speed biology with potential implications for AI efficiency.
• Rothman outlined unpublished research suggesting synaptic vesicle release speed may rely on 12 SNARE complexes, with half generating 2-3 atmospheres of pressure.
• He flagged a possible additional pressure-driven signaling mechanism at synapses, calling the hypothesis uncertain and likely controversial on publication.
• Discussion shifted to AI strategy, highlighting connectomics as a path to more energy-efficient computing modeled on the brain’s ~20-watt power use.
• Rothman warned long-horizon basic research remains hard to finance, arguing venture capital cannot fully substitute for public funding of early discovery.

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