I tried to make a real fly connectome learn to play Pong. It didn't — and auditing why turned out to be way more interesting than if it had worked [p]

A developer attempted to train a real fly connectome, MaleCNS v1.0, to play Pong, but it failed. This connectome, featuring 166k neurons from an actual EM reconstruction, has been circulating due to its use in other games like Doom and Minecraft. The developer found the auditing process of understanding the failure more engaging than if the project had succeeded, and is curious if others have encountered similar issues, particularly with the central complex and steering circuits.

Unlike other reports on MaleCNS v1.0 that highlight its successes, this account details a failure to train it for Pong, focusing on the auditing process.