Conceived via PS5 controller: First robot-fertilized babies born

Many gamers have a PS5 controller at home and use it to play games on the console. However, the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller has now made its way into science and the controller can be said to have successfully helped conceive a baby.

In vitro fertilization (IVF), i.e. artificial insemination, is nothing new. Developed in the 1960s and 1970s, the first IVF baby was born in 1978. This method has long been routine today, but one problem remains: it is still a rather complicated and, above all, expensive process.

An experiment at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York wanted to address these problems, because a miniature robot was used there to fertilize some eggs. How MIT Technology Review reportedly, it was developed by a startup called Overture Life and controlled with a PlayStation 5 DualSense controller.

PS5 controller did not require IVF experience

What’s amazing is that the gaming controller allowed a technician “with no real experience in fertility medicine” to look through a microscopic camera, move the robotic needle, and successfully place single sperm into multiple eggs. Once the egg was within a suitable distance, the robot would detach from the needle and move to the egg on its own. In this way, several fertilizations could be carried out.

According to the researchers, this was a complete success, as you could get several healthy embryos at once. It is now clear that the experiment was a complete success, as two girls fertilized in this way were born, according to the researchers. Such robotic insemination should make IVF much cheaper, as currently only specialists can perform this task – by treating sperm and egg cells with wafer-thin hollow needles under the microscope. A treatment or corresponding fertilization currently costs tens of thousands of euros, since the entire procedure requires many sensitive steps.

The researchers want to further automate the previous (but not yet market-ready) process. Ultimately, their goal is for this type of fertilization to take place in a “box” without any human intervention. However, there are still great doubts from other experts as to whether this can succeed, since IVF is an extremely sensitive process.

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