Starlab also plans to build an artificial brain for use in, at first, a robot kitten. De Garis said he will use it to create an artificial brain with about 100 million cells, which he thinks would be enough to control the kitten. A human brain has about 10 billion cells. Starlab's future De Brouwer and other Starlab managers own 88 percent of the company. Other investors include MIT's Negroponte, who owns less than 1 percent.
Employees own the rest.
The company expects to record its first profit in the second half of 2001, spokeswoman Katrien Van Gerven said. Starlab doesn't plan to design, manufacture or market any products. It's leaving that for business partners and the companies it sets up. Sixty of the company's 70 employees are researchers. Most have doctorates, and the majority are between 25 and 30 years old.