Video gallery
Video gallery: fruit fly brain simulation demos you can watch, and what each one really shows
Short clips of a "fly brain" playing Doom, driving a car or walking in Minecraft reached tens of millions of people. Here are 54 of those videos and the lab films behind them, in English and other languages. Each card tells you who posted it, whether it is the original upload, and what the video does not show, next to the project's evidence grade from our catalogue.
Short answer
A real connectome simulation drives what you see in the DOOMFLY, Mario 64 (Fly64), Stonkfly, Flyhard, FlyOCR, BioReservoir, flydoom and Fly.exe videos and in Blendi's Minecraft mod (grades A and B in our catalogue). In each of them, people designed how the input reaches the neurons and how the output is read from them. Flyhard also trained all of its connection strengths, FlyOCR reads its answer through a trained decoder, and Blendi's mod has a reflex layer that moves the fly when the brain is quiet.
6 Oct 2026: a Spanish Doom explainer. "Metieron el CEREBRO de una MOSCA en un Ordenador… y jugó a DOOM" by Vm granmisterio (490,717 views) is commentary on DOOMFLY, Eon's embodied fly and the MaleCNS and FlyWire data; we read its page, not the video. Two other non-English videos stay out: the Spanish edition of a Minecraft video that credits a mod we leave out, and a video whose description names no project. Gorilla Tag reached 899,151 views, still with no code. Thumbnails are unchanged.
5 Oct 2026: videos in other languages. Searches in French, Spanish and Russian found fly-brain videos with hundreds of thousands of views that English searches never showed. Cards now carry a language label, and we added one: DenTrave's Russian explainer (128,757 views), commentary on DOOMFLY, Stonkfly, the Shiu et al. model and the MaleCNS data. The two most-viewed Minecraft fly videos, by Fiouze and Aywen (French, 575,059 views) and Bobicraft (Spanish, 475,569), are not in the gallery: the French one credits a mod we leave out (a crypto token with no code), and the Spanish one names no project we could check. Gorilla Tag reached 868,853 views, still with no code. Thumbnails are unchanged.
3 Oct 2026: no new video qualified. A fast-growing compilation, "Scientists Teach A Fly How To Drive" (63,935 views in 14 hours), is a re-upload; its thumbnail appears to show Flyhard, so we added it to that verdict instead of the gallery. Gorilla Tag reached 724,625 views on the search page, still with no code. Thumbnails are unchanged.
2 Oct 2026: a fly brain with a body in Terraria, and code to read. George Ostrobrod's video (in Russian; 28,244 views on 2 Oct, up 24,664 in a day) shows a MaleCNS fly brain driving a Terraria body with eyes, smell, pain and balance. Unlike most viral clips it links its code: the connectome really runs, with learning synapses and hand-mapped senses and muscles, so the project is grade B. There is no control, as the author says, and the code is three days older than the video. We have not watched it. Our verdict. Does a simulated body need a real brain to walk? Our own test says not much of one.
1 Oct 2026: two big claims with nothing to inspect. "I Taught a Fly How to Play Gorilla Tag (seriously)" had 527,756 views on 1 Oct (623,504 on the YouTube search page on 2 Oct), the most of any fly-brain claim in our scans, and "I Made Two Real Flies Brain Fight Each other in JJS", a Roblox fight, had 139,364. Neither names a brain model or publishes code, so both are grade U. We have not watched either video; their cards rest on the title, description and view count. Our verdicts: Gorilla Tag, Roblox fight.
30 Sep 2026: FlyLeno and Fly-NAF. Vinesauce's stream of the FlyLeno show (grade B, borderline C) is a streamer's playthrough, not the author's upload; we list it because the project links no video of its own. The whole FlyWire brain really runs in it, but walking rhythm, homing and the choice of actions are engineered. Our verdict. Fly-NAF's best run (grade B) is the author's own recording of the FlyWire brain playing Five Nights at Freddy's. Does the real wiring matter in videos like these? None of them tests it; Does fly wiring help? compares the studies that do.
29 Sep 2026: a wiring test you can watch. In a 47-second video from the new fly-brain-zero-shot study (grade A), a whole-brain model steers a simulated fly to dark poles after two of its legs are cut, and the same fly with scrambled wiring does not. The walking itself comes from a hand-built rhythm; the brain steers. Also new: the Roblox maze race (grade C: a scripted helper does most of the steering) and a Liftoff drone race (grade C: a hand-written pilot sets the course). The viral Pokémon-on-a-Raspberry-Pi and Rainbow Six Siege claims still have no video we could admit: our verdicts on Pokémon and Rainbow Six.
28 Sep 2026: a control study answers the Doom clip. In doom-fly-control by gabrycina, re-run with DOOMFLY's own code, a brainless autopilot that turns, walks and shoots at constant rates survived about as long as the full fly brain (51.9 s against 53.3 s). What that does and does not show.
Two more viral videos do not hold up in the code. The Half-Life video (grade D) says it uses the MaleCNS connectome, but the released code builds its own synthetic network by default. The Minecraft farming video (FlyBridge, grade C) uses a small trained part of the wiring, and scripted code walks, aims and clicks.
The three most-watched clips are the ones we could check least. Beat Saber and the NeuroCraft Minecraft fly have no code we could inspect (grade U), and in Bad Apple the picture is mostly the input video forced onto neurons (grade C). Eon's "brain upload" fly walks with pre-trained controllers by Eon's own account, and its body code is not public (U).
The lab films show something else: the flybody and NeuroMechFly videos show fly bodies moved by trained or hand-written controllers, not by a connectome, and the FlyWire, MaleCNS, hemibrain, MANC and BANC films show wiring maps, not simulations.
The gallery at a glance
- 54videos: 31 on YouTube, 13 on X, 2 on TikTok, 8 on project sites
- 46original uploads by the project's author, lab or institution; 8 reposts, commentary or playthroughs
- 34 of 116catalogue entries now have at least one video
- 0play inside this site: every video opens on its original platform
The most-watched fly brain clips, and what is behind them
The sixteen most-viewed demo clips we found, one per project and original uploads only, with the views each post had on 28 September 2026 (later date shown where the count is newer; clips with at least 1,000 views). Hollow bars mark clips whose mechanism we could not inspect.
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Fly brain plays Beat Saber (X video)lyra bubbles · X · 9 Sep 2026U
No code, weights or method published.
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Bad Apple FlyKevin · X · 6 Sep 2026C
The picture is mostly the input video: neurons under dark pixels are forced to fire.
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NeuroCraft Flyevnsnclr · X · 4 Sep 2026U
Code not released; its README says read-outs select scripted body programs.
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Embodied brain emulation (Eon Systems)Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross · X · 7 Mar 2026U
Body code not released; by Eon's account, a few neurons switch pre-trained controllers.
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StonkflyAlex Wormuth · X · 10 Sep 2026B
A real connectome runs; the buy and sell decoder is hand-made; no profitable learning shown.
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Flyhard (The Driving Fly)Breg Grockman · X · 10 Sep 2026B
All 25.7 million connection gains were trained; 0 of 50 parallel parks succeeded.
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DOOMFLYAlex Wormuth · X · 9 Sep 2026B
A real connectome runs; the read-out neurons were picked by hand; learning did not work.
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Ro0oney (not in catalogue)Ro0oney · YouTube · 7 Sep 2026none
Not in our catalogue and not reviewed; no study supports the "conscious" title.
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Fly64Jessica Paquette · X · 7 Sep 2026B
A real connectome runs; stick and buttons come from hand-chosen neurons.
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Fly plays Gorilla Tag (video claim)SuperCatCrazeGT · YouTube · 26 Sep 2026U
Names no model, data or code; the only link is a page of game maps and socials.
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Fly Brain MinecraftBlendi · X · 6 Sep 2026B
A real connectome runs; a reflex layer moves the fly when the brain is quiet.
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Two fly brains fight in Jujutsu Shenanigans (video claim)Evoke · YouTube · 21 Sep 2026U
Names no fly-brain project and publishes no code; only Discord and Roblox links.
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FlyBrain-HalfLifeYusuf Temel · YouTube · 12 Sep 2026D
Its "MaleCNS" network is generated by the code, not loaded; steering and attacks are computed outside it.
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FlyBridgeSWOT · YouTube · 22 Sep 2026C
A trained 1,536-neuron part of the wiring inside a policy; scripted code walks, aims and clicks.
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Fly OCRJerry Liu · X · 13 Sep 2026A
A frozen connectome circuit plus a trained decoder; a plain pixel classifier reads digits better.
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Digital Fly in Terraria (MaleCNS fly with a body)George Ostrobrod · YouTube · 29 Sep 2026B
A real MaleCNS connectome runs and learns; senses and muscles are hand-mapped; no control, and the code predates the video.
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Fly-NAFArtur Arruda · YouTube · 19 Sep 2026B
A real connectome runs; the seeing is a pixel-difference threshold and each action comes from one chosen neuron.
All 54 videos
Grouped by what the video is about. Original uploads come first in each group; reposts and commentary are collected at the end and linked to the original they copy. Every card has a link to the project's catalogue entry, and to its "Is it real?" verdict where we wrote one.
Viral demos from September 2026 (23)
Game, art and toy demos posted by their authors after the male fly connectome (MaleCNS v1.0) came out, and one control study that re-tested the Doom demo. In thirteen of these twenty-three clips a real connectome runs and drives what you see (one of them, FlyLeno, is a streamer's playthrough of the author's browser show; the newest, a Terraria fly, also changes its synapses as it plays, with no control). Nine do not show that: four have no code we could inspect (among them the most-viewed fly claim of the week, Gorilla Tag), one mostly shows its own input, one (Minecraft farming) uses scripted walking and aiming around a small trained part of the wiring, one (Roblox maze) gets most of its steering from a scripted helper, one (Liftoff drone race) uses a trained part of the wiring that a hand-written pilot steers, and one (Half-Life) does not load a connectome at all.
The simulated brain drives the clip (grades A and B) (13)
Introducing FlyOCR - I trained a fly brain to read a PDF
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a controlBorderline A: the rewiring control was run only on a 200-image pilot, not on the final model. Catalogue entry: Fly OCR
- What it shows
- A rendered fly "reading" a PDF: glyphs become receptor activity in a frozen MaleCNS circuit and a trained decoder outputs characters.
- What it does not show
- A small trained decoder does the classification; a plain pixel classifier (99%) and a small CNN (100%) beat it (89%) on digits.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, repo README, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 38,250 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author Jerry Liu; a 40 s teaser file is also on the repo release page.
Also A 40-second teaser file is also on the project's release page: file ↗
did something similar, with a map of the brain showing which neurons are firing in realtime and…
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Fly Brain Minecraft · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Minecraft fly with a live map of firing neurons and an on-screen readout of the chosen action.
- What it does not show
- A reflex layer is on by default and acts when the brain is quiet; looming and odour inputs are computed from game objects.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, repo README, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 272,226 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author's own post (GitHub blendi-remade lists this X handle).
Published title did something similar, with a map of the brain showing which neurons are firing in realtime and a readout of what the fly decided to do (published caption, shortened by us)
I'm training a fly brain to play Doom using the full MaleCNS v1.0 fruit fly connectome.
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputsKept at B: its own controls are a full disconnection and a learning pilot with two episodes per arm. A third-party study (doom-fly-control) found that shuffled wiring stops the fly, but a brainless constant autopilot survives about as long, so there is no evidence of skilled play. Catalogue entry: DOOMFLY · Project page · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Seven-second first-person Doom clip with telemetry panels, announcing that game frames drive the MaleCNS model's sensory neurons and damage stimulates two dopamine cells.
- What it does not show
- The "learning" did not work by the author's own logs; read-out cells were chosen because they responded to the screen.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 375,793 (a snapshot).
Uploader DOOMFLY author Alex Wormuth (GitHub nftechie; X handle since renamed from @nftechie_ to @wormuth).
playing mario 64 using a fly's brain
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Fly64 · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Super Mario 64 controlled from fly-model neuron activity: Mario runs, jumps and bumps into walls.
- What it does not show
- Hand-chosen stick and button neurons with smoothing, deadzone and jump cooldown; no goal or benchmark.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, press descriptions, repo, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 791,385 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author Jessica Paquette (GitHub ornata), linked from the repo README.
the fly brain can play doom
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputsKept at B: its own controls are a full disconnection and a learning pilot with two episodes per arm. A third-party study (doom-fly-control) found that shuffled wiring stops the fly, but a brainless constant autopilot survives about as long, so there is no evidence of skilled play. Catalogue entry: DOOMFLY · Project page · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Ten-second clip of a rendered fly with a gun moving through a Doom level in third-person view, driven by the model's read-out neurons.
- What it does not show
- Hand-made frame-to-photoreceptor adapter and hand-picked output neurons; no shuffled-wiring control.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, DOOMFLY repo, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 2,528,046 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author's follow-up clip; quoted in Google AI's own roundup thread.
I gave the fly brain $100 to trade bitcoin.
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Stonkfly · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Ten-second clip of the fly model trading bitcoin, with dopamine neurons stimulated on profit.
- What it does not show
- README: profitable learning has not been demonstrated; paper trading by default; a hand-made decoder and risk limits sit between neurons and orders.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 4,146,673 (a snapshot).
Uploader Stonkfly author Alex Wormuth.
the fly has completed* the ultimate test: parallel parking
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Flyhard (The Driving Fly) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- A car in a driving sim attempting to parallel park under the fly-derived controller (the caption's asterisk hints it does not fully succeed).
- What it does not show
- All ~25.7 M edge gains were trained by behaviour cloning; repo reports 0/50 successful parallel parks.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, repo metrics, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 2,885,824 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author Mark Unthank (GitHub MarkUnthank lists this X handle).
A question going through all 165,122 neurons
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: BioReservoir
- What it shows
- 24-second visualisation of a question propagating through the MaleCNS model at fly.igdigi.com.
- What it does not show
- Controls have been run but not yet scored; so far real-brain answers look like the no-brain baseline (~0.50).
Open the project README on GitHub MP4 file, 10 MB (downloads)
How we checked this video
Summary based on README caption, video not inspected frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). No publication date shown.
Uploader Linked from the project README (also mirrored at igdigi.com with music).
Source Video file linked from the project README; the heading is its README caption.
FlyWire whole brain plays Doom (flydoom, 30 s clip)
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a control Catalogue entry: flydoom · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- 30 seconds of game time of the FlyWire v783 whole-brain simulation playing Doom through a compound-eye model.
- What it does not show
- The author's controls show that vision helps only narrowly, in one purpose-built arena, and that classic fly reflexes are absent.
Open the project README on GitHub MP4 file, 8 MB
How we checked this video
Summary based on README caption and result files; video not watched frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). No publication date shown.
Uploader Project's own video file (8 MB) linked from the README; not re-hosted.
Published title Full clip (30 s of game time) (video file linked from the project README)
Twelve embodied flies on the full MaleCNS connectome
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Fly.exe (MaleCNS Virtual Fly)
- What it shows
- Twelve NeuroMechFly bodies driven by LIF simulations of the MaleCNS v1.0 graph, compared with an identical-seed run without the stimulus.
- What it does not show
- Input goes through an analytic vision encoder and output is read from hand-picked DNp populations into FlyGym's walking controller; shuffled and zero-weight runs are diagnostic only.
Open the project README on GitHub MP4 file, 19 MB
How we checked this video
Summary based on README caption and repository code; video not watched frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). No publication date shown.
Uploader Project's own video file (19 MB, 1920x1080) linked from the README; not re-hosted.
Published title Watch the full 1:38 video (swarm showcase) (video file linked from the project README; display title from the v0.1.0 release name)
Fly-NAF: the FlyWire brain plays Five Nights at Freddy's (best run)
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Fly-NAF
- What it shows
- The whole-brain FlyWire model reading the game screen and driving the mouse in Five Nights at Freddy's 1; the author reports it reached 4 AM on night 2.
- What it does not show
- The seeing is a pixel-difference threshold computed before the brain, each action is read from one chosen neuron or population, and there is no control run (catalogue grade B).
How we checked this video
Summary based on README and oEmbed metadata (1,472 views, 2026-09-30); mechanism from the repository code.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 30 Sep 2026: 1,472 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author's upload, linked from README.md line 9-10 of ArtyMend07/Fly-NAF.
Published title Fruit Fly Brain Plays Five Nights at Freddy's 1 (linked from the repository README as the best run so far)
Vinesauce stream: a fruit fly brain pilots Grey Leno (FlyLeno)
Streamer's playthrough Recorded by Vinesauce: The Full Sauce, not by the project's author. No video by the author exists, so we list this one.
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputsBorderline C: the brain really runs and its reflexes move the host, but walking rhythm, homing and the choice of what to do next are engineered layers, and there is no control. A scrambled-wiring or no-brain run of the same show could raise it to A; evidence that the engineered layers drive most of what is on screen would lower it to C. Catalogue entry: FlyLeno (TUURD Talk) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- A long stream in which the FlyLeno browser show runs: a ragdoll Grey Leno moves, talks and reacts to thrown objects while the page shows the fly brain's spiking activity.
- What it does not show
- Whether the behaviour needs the real wiring: gait, balance, homing, food seeking and the choice of spontaneous actions are engineered layers, input and output neurons are hand-picked, and there is no scrambled-wiring or no-brain control (catalogue grade B).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube title, oEmbed and watch-page metadata (36,763 views, 2026-09-30 09:41Z); mechanism from the repository code, not from the video.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 30 Sep 2026: 36,763 (a snapshot).
Uploader Stream archive by Vinesauce (Vinny), whose Grey Leno character the project uses; not the author AgitationSkeleton.
Published title Vinny - Fruit Fly Brain pilots Grey Leno (a streamer's playthrough, not the project author's upload; admitted under Gallery rule 1 because no author video could be found (the repository README links no demo video))
A MaleCNS fly brain with a body in Terraria, and its training (Russian)
Original upload
B Grade B: connectome runs, hand-made inputs and outputs Catalogue entry: Digital Fly in Terraria (MaleCNS fly with a body) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- The author's account of building a fly body in Terraria (eyes, smell, pain, balance) driven by a connectome simulation, with chapters on how the neuron map is 'brought to life' and 'So is it a real brain or not?' (description).
- What it does not show
- A control: the code has no plasticity-off or scrambled-wiring run, and the code (last commit 2026-09-26) is older than the video (catalogue grade B).
How we checked this video
Summary based on watch-page metadata read 2026-10-01T10:57Z (run 5) and the search-page view count on 2026-10-02; the video itself was not watched (no browser in run 6).
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 2 Oct 2026: 28,244 (a snapshot).
Uploader Creator's own upload; the description links the GitLab code (wdf.gost/terraria-wdf-fly-brain), MaleCNS, FlyWire and Virtual Fly Brain.
Published title Я засунул мозг мухи в Terraria. И попытался его обучить (Russian title; YouTube shows the English translation "I put a fly's brain into Terraria. And tried to train it".)
A control study answers a viral clip (grade A) (1)
Is the fly brain actually playing DOOM?
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a control Catalogue entry: Is the fly brain actually playing DOOM? (control experiments) · Is it real? verdict · It tests: DOOMFLY B, doomfly-rl A
- What it shows
- Explainer video of the control experiments: DOOMFLY with real, shuffled and no wiring next to a brainless autopilot, and the trained doomfly-rl arms.
- What it does not show
- The numbers are the author's; shuffled arms are small (4 runs per seed) and the autopilot's constants were matched to the fly's average output.
Open the project README on GitHub MP4 file, 12 MB
How we checked this video
Summary based on repository README and result files; video not watched frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). The date is the commit date of the file in the repository.
Uploader Project's own video file (12 MB) in the repository, linked from the README; not re-hosted.
Published title Is the fly brain actually playing DOOM? (control experiments video) (video file linked from the project README; the heading is the README title)
Mostly stimulus, scripted, or not checkable (grades C, D and U) (9)
I’ve successfully run the full retained MaleCNS v1.0 fruit fly connectome, all 166,700 neurons…
Original upload
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: NeuroCraft Fly · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- A fly in a Minecraft box moving about while a panel shows modelled neural activity; claimed to run all 166,700 MaleCNS neurons.
- What it does not show
- Per its own README, hand-chosen readouts select scripted body programs and the body moves with inputs off; simulation code is not released.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, repo README, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 14,057,766 (a snapshot).
Uploader Original post by the NeuroCraft Fly author; a longer 2:27 cut is in the public repo.
Published title I’ve successfully run the full retained MaleCNS v1.0 fruit fly connectome, all 166,700 neurons, inside Minecraft, with its simulated neural (published caption, shortened by us)
Also A longer 2:27 cut is in the project's public repository: file ↗
Bad Apple but it's playing on a fly's brain
Original upload
C Grade C: partial, stand-in or decorative network Catalogue entry: Bad Apple Fly · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- The "Bad Apple!!" animation appearing as a pattern of firing neurons in the fly model.
- What it does not show
- The image is mostly the stimulus: neurons under dark pixels are forced to fire. The README says it is not a real brain simulation.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, repo README, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 20,794,151 (a snapshot).
Uploader Author's own post (GitHub kevinlinxc lists this X handle).
the fly brain can play beat saber
Original upload
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Fly brain plays Beat Saber (X video) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- A fly-brain visualisation next to Beat Saber gameplay, with the fly apparently hitting blocks in time.
- What it does not show
- No code or method published; the author's replies reportedly say the motor output was fitted to a replay of the song.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, search summaries of author replies, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 23,059,544 (a snapshot).
Uploader Original viral post (about 23 million views at check time).
I Put a Fly’s Brain in Minecraft. It Learned to Farm.
Original upload
C Grade C: partial, stand-in or decorative networkThe file citations behind this C grade were spot-read by us, not re-verified line by line. Catalogue entry: FlyBridge · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- 34-minute video attempting to train a fly-connectome agent in Minecraft to farm wheat.
- What it does not show
- The brain is a 1,536-neuron smell-pathway subset of FlyWire v783 whose synapse gains are trained inside a policy network; a scripted controller walks, aims and clicks, and no stored result compares it with the shuffled or disconnected versions in the code.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026; repository code inspected on 28 Sep 2026 (catalogue entry flybridge).
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 107,006 (a snapshot).
Uploader Creator's own video; code at github.com/swotstudio/FlyBridge.
TypeSafe Jev1.13 vs a Fruit Fly Brain in a Roblox maze
Original upload
C Grade C: partial, stand-in or decorative network Catalogue entry: Fruit fly vs Jev: Roblox maze race
- What it shows
- A race through the same Roblox maze between a character driven by a MaleCNS v1.0 fly-brain simulation and one driven by an AI language model (TypeSafe Jev), with overlays.
- What it does not show
- In the released code most of the fly character's steering comes from a scripted teacher that is blended with the brain signal (65-80% of the command near walls and rings), the code also remembers visited maze cells, and the trained readout is not used (catalogue grade C).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube oEmbed and watch-page metadata (title, date, duration, description), repository code; video not watched frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 29 Sep 2026: 35 (a snapshot).
Uploader Linked as 'Video:' on line 5 of the fruitfly-roblox README; the channel name matches the GitHub account SolidifiedPlayDoh.
Connectome-based drone controller finishes a Straw Bale race (4x speed)
Original upload
C Grade C: partial, stand-in or decorative networkThe file citations behind this C grade were spot-read by us, not re-verified line by line. Catalogue entry: Haltere
- What it shows
- The fast-brain-08 motor readout on a 30,000-neuron MaleCNS subgraph flying an FPV drone through a full Straw Bale race in the game Liftoff (5:17 race shown at 4x), with connectome activity beside the gameplay.
- What it does not show
- A hand-written visual pilot sets the velocity goal and yaw, and the network's weights and readout are trained by imitation of a non-connectome teacher; there is no shuffled-wiring control for flight (catalogue grade C).
Open the release page on GitHub MP4 file, 21 MB (downloads)
How we checked this video
Summary based on Release notes (docs/fast_brain_08_release.md) and repository code; video not watched frame by frame; publish date is the release commit date.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). The date is the date of the release that carries the file.
Uploader Project's own release asset; README line 20 links the release notes (docs/fast_brain_08_release.md), which list the videos. Not re-hosted.
Published title fast-brain08-straw-bale-finish-4x.mp4 (video file attached to the project's fast-brain-08 release, linked from the README via the release notes)
I Put a Real Fruit Fly Brain Into Half-Life...
Original upload
D Grade D: scripted or game logic Catalogue entry: FlyBrain-HalfLife · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- A Half-Life session in which an on-screen 'fly brain' network steers, turns and shoots, with a neuron-activity panel.
- What it does not show
- The video description says 'the biological connectome of a fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster - MaleCNS v1.0) with 12,260 reconstructed neurons'; the released code builds its default 12,260-neuron network procedurally from region sizes, and steering and attack decisions are computed outside the network (catalogue grade D).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube oEmbed and watch-page metadata (title, date, duration, description), repository code; video not watched frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 137,648 (a snapshot).
Uploader Channel name matches the GitHub display name of the repository owner (Yusuftmle = 'Yusuf Temel', GitHub API 2026-09-28); the video does not link the repository, so the attribution rests on the name match.
Gorilla Tag played by a fly's 'open source brain' (claim)
Original upload
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Fly plays Gorilla Tag (video claim) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- The creator's claim that a fly's 'open source brain' learned to move as a gorilla in Gorilla Tag and to play Infection (title and description).
- What it does not show
- Which fly-brain model, data or code is used, how game input reaches neurons or how neuron output moves the avatar, and any control run: none is published (catalogue grade U).
How we checked this video
Summary based on watch-page metadata (title, description, views) read 2026-10-01 ~10:58Z; the video itself was not watched (no browser in run 5).
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 1 Oct 2026: 527,756 (a snapshot).
Uploader Creator's own upload; description links only to linktr.ee/supercatcraze (no code).
Published title I Taught a Fly How to Play Gorilla Tag (seriously) (shortened on the card)
Two 'real fly brains' fight in Roblox Jujutsu Shenanigans (claim)
Original upload
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Two fly brains fight in Jujutsu Shenanigans (video claim) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- The creator's claim that two fly brains control fighters in the Roblox game Jujutsu Shenanigans (title and description).
- What it does not show
- Any brain model, connectome release, controller code or control run: none is published (catalogue grade U).
How we checked this video
Summary based on watch-page metadata (title, description, views) read 2026-10-01 ~10:58Z; the video itself was not watched (no browser in run 5).
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 1 Oct 2026: 139,364 (a snapshot).
Uploader Creator's own upload; description links only to Discord and a Roblox group.
Published title I Made Two Real Flies Brain Fight Each other in JJS (shortened on the card)
Eon's embodied fly: a claim we could not inspect (2)
The March 2026 "first multi-behavior brain upload". The brain model it names is real and public, but the body code is not, and by Eon's own write-up a few hand-picked neurons switch walking and grooming controllers that were trained to imitate a real fly.
The First Multi-Behavior Brain Upload
Original upload Reposted by Rowan Cheung (TikTok), Dr Ben Miles (YouTube)
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Embodied brain emulation (Eon Systems) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Split screen: a simulated fly body walks in a sandbox, grooms and feeds, next to a point-cloud "brain" view labelled as a simultaneous brain emulation.
- What it does not show
- Does not show how behaviour is produced: by Eon's own write-up, a few hand-picked neurons switch pre-trained, imitation-learned motor controllers; body code is not public. Nothing is "uploaded".
How we checked this video
Summary based on X Article data, press descriptions, video not inspected frame by frame, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 11,344,969 (a snapshot).
Uploader Posted by Eon Systems co-founder Alex Wissner-Gross as the launch announcement; the video sits inside an X Article (post text is only a link).
Source X Article with video.
How the Eon Team Produced a Virtual Embodied Fly
Original upload
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Embodied brain emulation (Eon Systems) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Eon's own demo clip of the embodied fly (walking, grooming, feeding) that accompanies its technical explanation.
- What it does not show
- Same limits as the X version; read together with the page text, which calls vision "somewhat decorative" and the controllers pre-trained.
Watch on eon.systems MP4 file, 91 MB
How we checked this video
Summary based on the page that hosts the video, video not inspected frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). No publication date shown; the file was last changed on 11 Mar 2026.
Uploader Hosted by Eon on its technical write-up and announcement pages; a 39.6 s cut, different from the 42.9 s X Article cut.
Source Video on Eon's technical write-up page.
Whole-brain models with controls: two talks and one closed-loop test (3)
The two best-tested fly brain models, explained by their authors in long lectures, and a short video from a new control study (29 Sep 2026) in which a whole-brain model steers a simulated fly body and scrambled wiring fails. All three are grade A: their output was compared with real fly experiments or with scrambled wiring.
Dr. Philip Shiu - A computational model of the Drosophila brain (Brain Emulation Challenge workshop)
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a control Catalogue entry: Drosophila_brain_model (Shiu et al. 2024) · Project page
- What it shows
- Recorded workshop talk and Q&A in which Shiu walks through the leaky integrate-and-fire whole-brain model and its feeding and grooming predictions.
- What it does not show
- Long lecture (81 min), not a demo clip. Recorded February 2025, uploaded March 2026.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube title and description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 773 (a snapshot).
Uploader Talk by the model's first author (Philip Shiu); uploaded by the host, Carboncopies Foundation.
Srini Turaga - How to simulate a connectome? - IPAM at UCLA
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a control Catalogue entry: flyvis · Project page
- What it shows
- Lecture on simulating a connectome, covering the connectome-constrained model of the fly visual system that became flyvis.
- What it does not show
- Recorded February 2024, before the Nature paper; long lecture (52 min).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 445 (a snapshot).
Uploader Talk by the senior author (Srini Turaga); uploaded by IPAM (UCLA).
Whole-brain fly steers to poles after a leg cut, real vs scrambled wiring (47 s)
Original upload
A Grade A: tested against data or a controlBorderline A: walking comes from a hand-built rhythm generator and the brain only steers through one tuned gain; the scrambled comparison after the leg cut has 16 flies from a single shuffle, and only the per-fly summary table is stored. Catalogue entry: Are fruit flies zero-shot adapters?
- What it shows
- A closed loop of eye model, FlyWire v783 whole-brain spiking model and NeuroMechFly body steering toward dark poles; two legs are removed mid-walk; the same fly is replayed with scrambled wiring.
- What it does not show
- Walking comes from a hand-built rhythm generator; the brain only supplies the turn signal through one tuned gain. The scrambled comparison after the cut uses 16 flies from a single shuffle (catalogue grade A, with these limits).
Open the project README on GitHub MP4 file, 4.7 MB (downloads)
How we checked this video
Summary based on README caption, code and stored per-fly results; video not watched frame by frame; publish date is the commit date.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). The date is the commit date of the file in the repository.
Uploader Project's own video file (4.7 MB) linked from the README; not re-hosted.
Published title Full video (47 s) (video file linked from the project README)
Fly bodies: trained or hand-written controllers, no connectome (7)
The two simulated fly bodies that most demos borrow. In these videos the body is moved by a trained neural network or by the user's own controller, not by a fly connectome. We do not grade bodies for brain-driven behaviour (n/a).
Artificial intelligence brings a virtual fly to life
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: flybody
- What it shows
- Janelia's overview of the virtual fruit fly built with Google DeepMind: an anatomically detailed body in MuJoCo walking and flying under a trained neural-network controller.
- What it does not show
- Body plus reinforcement-learned controller; no connectome drives it.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, Janelia news page, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 2,383 (a snapshot).
Uploader Official HHMI Janelia upload for the flybody release.
Anatomically accurate fruit fly body model
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: flybody
- What it shows
- Short clip of the anatomically accurate fly body model moving through its joints.
- What it does not show
- Kinematic demonstration of the body only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube title, Janelia page caption (every degree of freedom moved in a sine-wave pattern), thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,335 (a snapshot).
Uploader Official HHMI Janelia upload.
We built an AI model to simulate how a fruit fly walks, flies and behaves – in partnership with…
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: flybody
- What it shows
- Square clip of the MuJoCo fly following a real fly's flight path, with the target path shown as dots.
- What it does not show
- Controller trained on recorded fly behaviour; not a connectome simulation.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, press descriptions of the thread, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,059,776 (a snapshot).
Uploader Google DeepMind's own announcement thread for the Nature paper.
Published title We built an AI model to simulate how a fruit fly walks, flies and behaves – in partnership with @HHMIJanelia. (published caption, shortened by us)
A video of NeuroMechFly 2.0 in action
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyGym (NeuroMechFly v2)
- What it shows
- NeuroMechFly 2.0 walking toward an odour source, steering around a pillar with vision, and crossing rugged terrain with leg adhesion.
- What it does not show
- Per the post, vision is handled by a CNN and turning by an RL-trained network; not a connectome controller.
How we checked this video
Summary based on post text, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date of the post (UTC). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 7,438 (a snapshot).
Uploader Posted by lab head Pavan Ramdya at preprint release.
- What it shows
- How the NeuroMechFly body was built: a fly scanned by X-ray microtomography, segmented and turned into a simulated skeleton.
- What it does not show
- About the original (v1) body model; no brain model involved.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 819 (a snapshot).
Uploader Uploaded by EPFL BIOROB, co-developers of NeuroMechFly.
NeuroMechFly Workshop SFN 2024
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyGym (NeuroMechFly v2)
- What it shows
- Hands-on FlyGym workshop: installation, the control loop, kinematic replay and a vision-guided following example.
- What it does not show
- Uses the older FlyGym 1.x API (now flygym-gymnasium); code may not run on FlyGym 2.x.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube chapters, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 659 (a snapshot).
Uploader Uploaded by Pavan Ramdya (lab head).
FlyGym overview video
Original upload
n/a Fly body, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyGym (NeuroMechFly v2)
- What it shows
- 40-second overview montage of simulated flies in FlyGym environments.
- What it does not show
- Showcase montage; behaviours come from the controllers used in each example.
Watch on neuromechfly.org MP4 file, 11 MB (downloads)
How we checked this video
Summary based on project page context, video not inspected frame by frame.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 206: the file answered a partial download request, which is normal for video files). No publication date shown.
Uploader Embedded on the official project home page; also shown as a GIF in the GitHub README.
Source Video on the project home page; it has no published title, so the heading is ours.
Connectome maps and tours: the wiring, not a simulation (11)
Official films from the labs that mapped the fly's neurons. They show measured wiring diagrams, which every simulation on this page starts from. Datasets are not graded (n/a).
Fly Hemibrain Overview
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: Hemibrain connectome
- What it shows
- Overview of the hemibrain connectome: about 25,000 neurons in the central brain and the circuits it covers.
- What it does not show
- Partial brain; superseded by FlyWire and MaleCNS for whole-brain work.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 180,710 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI channel, released with the hemibrain on 2020-01-22.
Janelia scientists and collaborators unveil fruit fly nerve cord connectome
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MANC male adult nerve cord connectome
- What it shows
- Announcement film for the male adult nerve cord connectome (about 23,000 neurons).
- What it does not show
- Nerve cord only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 15,620 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI Janelia channel, released with MANC on 2023-06-06.
The FlyWire Connectome
Original upload Reposted by Science Magazine (TikTok)
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyWire FAFB whole-brain connectome
- What it shows
- Official FlyWire release film: renders of the whole-brain wiring diagram and why it matters.
- What it does not show
- A map of wiring, not a simulation.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 54,274 (a snapshot).
Uploader FlyWire Princeton channel; premiered with the Nature 2024 papers.
The first complete map of every neuron in an adult fly brain.
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyWire FAFB whole-brain connectome
- What it shows
- 45-second announcement of the first complete neuron-level map of an adult fly brain (about 140,000 neurons, 50 million connections).
- What it does not show
- Wiring diagram only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 288,393 (a snapshot).
Uploader University of Cambridge, a FlyWire consortium member.
FlyWire Codex Tutorial: Search (2026)
Original upload
n/a Data tool, not graded Catalogue entry: Codex (FlyWire Connectome Data Explorer)
- What it shows
- Screen-recorded tutorial of the Codex search features, including AI-assisted queries.
- What it does not show
- Codex requires a Google sign-in.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 183 (a snapshot).
Uploader FlyWire Princeton channel; presented by Codex creator Arie Matsliah and Amy Sterling.
Scientists Release "Wiring Diagram" Encompassing Entire Central Nervous System of an Adult Fruit Fly
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: BANC brain-and-nerve-cord connectome
- What it shows
- Announcement of the brain-and-nerve-cord wiring diagram of an adult (female) fly.
- What it does not show
- Wiring diagram only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 39,181 (a snapshot).
Uploader Harvard Medical School channel (lead labs of BANC).
Male fruit fly CNS cell types
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MaleCNS connectome (male central nervous system)
- What it shows
- One example cell of every neuron type in the male central nervous system (brain and nerve cord), shown in turn.
- What it does not show
- Wiring diagram only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, MaleCNS media page, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 19,045 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI Janelia channel (video by Philip Hubbard).
Example visual-motor pathway in the fruit fly
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MaleCNS connectome (male central nervous system)
- What it shows
- Traces one pathway from photoreceptors to a descending motor neuron through the male CNS.
- What it does not show
- Anatomy of a real pathway; game demos wire their own, often different, input and output neurons.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 4,409 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI Janelia channel.
Male Fly Brain Connectome
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MaleCNS connectome (male central nervous system)
- What it shows
- Render of the male fly brain connectome, framed around comparing male and female brains.
- What it does not show
- Wiring diagram only; this is the dataset every September 2026 game demo loads.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,835 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI channel, published with the MaleCNS Cell paper on 2026-09-03.
The History of Fruit Fly Connectomics at Janelia
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MaleCNS connectome (male central nervous system)
- What it shows
- Documentary on Janelia's fly-connectome effort from 2008 through the hemibrain to the complete male CNS.
- What it does not show
- History, not a demo.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 6,150 (a snapshot).
Uploader HHMI channel.
How we built two new brain maps using Google AI
Original upload
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: MaleCNS connectome (male central nervous system)
- What it shows
- Google Research Short on how AI-assisted reconstruction produced the male fly map and a companion brain map.
- What it does not show
- Methods story; no simulation.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 11,993 (a snapshot).
Uploader Google Research channel.
Not in our catalogue: not graded (1)
A popular Minecraft video that promotes a mod we could not review: the mod publishes no code, and its website shows a crypto token address (checked 28 Sep 2026). We show no grade for it. Do not read a grade into the video.
I Put A Fly's Conscious Brain into Minecraft
Original upload
none Not in our catalogue, not graded.Why: The promoted mod (flyproject.io) publishes no code and its site shows a pump.fun token contract address (checked 28 Sep 2026).
- What it shows
- 20-minute build story of putting a fly connectome simulation into Minecraft, ending with in-game footage.
- What it does not show
- Title claims consciousness; our Is it real? review found no study measuring or supporting that.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,490,068 (a snapshot).
Uploader Creator's own video; it promotes the "FruitFly Brain" Minecraft mod at flyproject.io (BANC-based per its site).
Reposts and commentary (7)
Second-hand videos that many people saw. Each links to the original it copies, or to our verdicts on the projects it discusses. They show the grade of the project they are about.
Scientist Just Uploaded Fly Brain to Computer
Repost Original: The First Multi-Behavior Brain Upload by Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Embodied brain emulation (Eon Systems) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Presenter explains the Eon embodied-fly demo in about a minute, framed as a fly brain "uploaded" to a computer.
- What it does not show
- Title says "uploaded fly brain"; our verdict is that no upload happened and the mechanism is not inspectable (grade U).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube title and description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,606,802 (a snapshot).
Uploader Science-communicator Short; description links Eon's technical page.
Researchers at Eon Systems have created a virtual fruit fly controlled by a simulated brain…
Repost Original: The First Multi-Behavior Brain Upload by Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross
U Grade U: unverified claim Catalogue entry: Embodied brain emulation (Eon Systems) · Is it real? verdict
- What it shows
- Vertical re-edit of Eon's embodied-fly footage with voice-over; the caption lists the model's limitations (simplified neurons, few behaviours).
- What it does not show
- Second-hand; the caption is more careful than the headline framing but still says the fly is "controlled by a simulated brain" without mentioning the pre-trained controllers.
How we checked this video
Summary based on TikTok caption.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date read from the TikTok video ID; it matches the page.
Uploader Commentary repost by an AI-news creator; caption cites the Eon announcement and the underlying papers.
Published title Researchers at Eon Systems have created a virtual fruit fly controlled by a simulated brain modeled on the actual Drosophila connectome, a (published caption, shortened by us)
Researchers have reconstructed the complete wiring diagram, or connectome, of the fruit #fly’s…
Repost Original: The FlyWire Connectome by FlyWire Princeton
n/a Dataset, not graded Catalogue entry: FlyWire FAFB whole-brain connectome
- What it shows
- Vertical explainer comparing the fly connectome to a city map, using FlyWire renders.
- What it does not show
- Wiring diagram only.
How we checked this video
Summary based on TikTok caption.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date read from the TikTok video ID; it matches the page.
Uploader Science magazine explainer; visuals credited to Tyler Sloan / FlyWire.
Published title Researchers have reconstructed the complete wiring diagram, or connectome, of the fruit #fly’s adult brain—a feat akin to mapping all the bu (published caption, shortened by us)
The Internet Is Torturing a Fruit Fly... (opensource brain)
Commentary A third-party explainer, not the project's own video.
Commentary, not graded. Verdicts on the projects it covers: NeuroCraft Fly U, Fly brain plays Beat Saber U, DOOMFLY B, Stonkfly B
- What it shows
- Six-minute explainer of the MaleCNS release and the wave of Minecraft, Beat Saber, Doom and trading demos.
- What it does not show
- Commentary; check each project's own grade.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube description, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 1,369,274 (a snapshot).
Uploader Third-party explainer; links the original X posts (Minecraft, Beat Saber, Doom) and the Google Research blog.
Software engineers have made a fruit fly play Doom, Mario 64, and Beatsaber
Commentary A third-party explainer, not the project's own video.
Commentary, not graded. Verdicts on the projects it covers: DOOMFLY B, Fly64 B, Fly brain plays Beat Saber U
- What it shows
- Games-press summary of fly-brain demos playing Doom, Mario 64 and Beat Saber.
- What it does not show
- News framing; does not show how inputs and outputs were wired.
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube title, thumbnail viewed on 28 Sep 2026.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Date as shown by YouTube (the channel's local time). Views on 28 Sep 2026: 35,979 (a snapshot).
Uploader PC Gamer news Short.
Как Google случайно запустил настоящую Матрицу
Commentary A third-party explainer, not the project's own video.
Commentary, not graded. Verdicts on the projects it covers: DOOMFLY B, Stonkfly B, Drosophila_brain_model A, MaleCNS connectome n/a
- What it shows
- Long-form Russian explainer: the fly connectome, the Doom, Minecraft and crypto-trading demos, and whether this is a step towards 'digital immortality'.
- What it does not show
- Commentary; check each project's own grade. A wiring map run with a simple neuron model is not an uploaded or living fly (see Is it real?).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube watch-page metadata (title, description, views, date) read 2026-10-05; the video itself was not watched; duration not stated on the page we read.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 5 Oct 2026: 128,757 (a snapshot).
Uploader Third-party Russian-language explainer (31.3K subscribers). The description lists its sources with timestamps: the MaleCNS paper (4:07), DOOMFLY (5:47), Steve Furber in The Register (7:33) and the Shiu et al. 2024 Nature model (7:46); later parts turn to science fiction and AI agents.
Metieron el CEREBRO de una MOSCA en un Ordenador… y jugó a DOOM
Commentary A third-party explainer, not the project's own video.
Commentary, not graded. Verdicts on the projects it covers: DOOMFLY B, Embodied brain emulation U, MaleCNS connectome n/a, FlyWire FAFB whole-brain connectome n/a
- What it shows
- Long-form Spanish explainer: the fly connectome, the games and robots people connected to it, and what "digitising a brain" means, with the mouse and human brain as next targets.
- What it does not show
- Commentary; check each project's own grade. A wiring map run with a simple neuron model is not an uploaded or living fly (see Is it real?).
How we checked this video
Summary based on YouTube watch-page metadata (title, description, views, date) read 2026-10-06; the video itself was not watched; the page withheld the player data, so the duration is not stated.
Link and record Checked on 6 Oct 2026 (HTTP 200). Views on 6 Oct 2026: 490,717 (a snapshot).
Uploader Third-party Spanish-language explainer channel. The description names MaleCNS, FlyWire, Eon Systems and DOOMFLY, and mentions games such as DOOM, Super Mario 64 and Minecraft and physical robots.
How we chose and checked these videos
What we did
- Checked on 28, 29 and 30 September and 1 and 2 October 2026. Every link answered each time; on 2 October we re-checked all 51 earlier videos and added 1. We took the title, uploader, date and length from the platform's own record.
- Original uploads first. A post counts as original when it comes from the project's author, lab or institution. We kept five reposts and commentary videos because many people saw them; each links to its original. One streamer's playthrough (FlyLeno) is listed because its project has no video of its own, and it is labelled as such.
- Summaries in our own words, from each video's title, description or caption, the project's own pages, and the thumbnail. Each card's "How we checked" note says what its summary rests on.
- Grades come from code, not from videos. A card shows the grade of its catalogue entry, which we set by inspecting the project's code, data or paper. A video never raises or lowers a grade.
Limits
- We did not watch every video frame by frame. A summary can miss something that appears only in the video. The videos added on 1 and 2 October were not watched at all: their cards rest on the title, description and view count. On 2 October YouTube refused our watch-page requests, so the new view count comes from its search page.
- View counts are snapshots from 28 September 2026 (29 or 30 September or 1 or 2 October for the newest videos) and will go stale.
- One video is not in our catalogue and not graded: Ro0oney's Minecraft video. The mod it promotes publishes no code, and its site shows a crypto token address. SWOT's FlyBridge video is now linked to its catalogue entry (grade C).
- Some videos have no stated or recorded length (6) or publication date (5); their cards say so. Project-hosted files answered with HTTP 206 (a partial download), which is normal for video files.
- We searched YouTube again on 29 and 30 September and 1 and 2 October (from 1 October also sorted by views, which found popular videos our date-sorted searches had missed) and left out other candidates: streamers' playthroughs and reaction videos (FlyLeno's is the one exception, see above), skits and explainers without a checkable claim, a second Half-Life video that shows nothing new, videos of projects not yet in our catalogue, and a live stream (the Pokémon stream is not a recorded video). X and TikTok cannot be searched without logging in, so we did not search them.
- Thumbnails load from YouTube's and X's image servers when you open this page, so those servers see your visit. TikTok and file videos get our own drawn cards instead.
- Left out: a FlyDrones drone clip whose original post we could not find, two viral clips from projects we could not identify, low-reach re-uploads, a members-only video and video files we could not load. The research report lists them with reasons.