China has established a committee dedicated to driving the advancement of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in the country, with the aim of becoming a global leader in brain chip technology. The committee will develop nationwide standards to compete with Western technology companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
BCIs, a term coined in the early 1970s, are devices that interpret the brain’s signals into computer-readable language. Over the past 50 years, scientists and engineers have utilized BCIs to study the human brain and develop treatments for neurological conditions. BCIs have shown promise in treating conditions like epilepsy and improving the quality of life for individuals with locked-in syndrome or paralysis.
BCIs have garnered attention recently due to Elon Musk’s establishment of Neuralink in 2016, where he pledged to make the technology accessible to the general public. Neuralink’s BCI technology involves a surgical procedure to implant the device in the user’s skull, with a successful implantation in a human brain reported on January 28, 2024.
China not only aims to become a global leader in BCI development but also intends to utilize BCIs for cognitive enhancement purposes. The specifics of this ambition are yet to be revealed, but a Wired report referred to a controversial Chinese experiment that proposed a device similar to Neuralink, capable of enabling “enhanced cognition.”
On the Western front, Neuralink recently postponed a scheduled brain implant operation for a second patient due to medical concerns. Meanwhile, Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is working on a non-invasive BCI that relies on wearable technology to translate nerve impulses into language that can operate a holographic display device’s operating system.