Author: Laurie Chen
BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) – China may see brain-computer interface (BCI) technology entering practical public use within three to five years as the products mature, a leading BCI expert said, as Beijing races to catch up with U.S. startups including Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
Beijing elevated brain-computer interfaces to a core strategic industry for the future in its new five-year plan released this week, alongside industries such as quantum, embedded artificial intelligence, 6G and nuclear fusion.
“The new policy will not change things overnight. I think in another three to five years, we will gradually see some (BCI) products move to the stage of providing actual services to the public,” Yao Dezhong, director of the Sichuan Provincial Brain Science Institute, said in an interview on the sidelines of China’s two sessions in Beijing on Saturday.
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The national BCI development strategy released last year aims to achieve major technological breakthroughs by 2027 and cultivate two to three world-class companies by 2030.
China is the second country to launch human trials of invasive brain-computer interfaces. There are more than 10 ongoing trials, as many as in the United States, and scientists plan to enroll more than 50 patients nationwide this year.
Recent high-profile trials have enabled paralyzed patients and amputees to regain some mobility and operate robotic hands or smart wheelchairs.
The government has included some BCI treatments in national medical insurance in several pilot provinces, and the domestic market is expected to reach 5.58 billion yuan ($809 million) by 2027, according to CCID Consulting.
“China has many advantages in brain-computer interfaces, such as a huge population, huge patient demand, a cost-effective industrial chain and a rich STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent pool,” said Yao, head of the Key Research Center for Neuroinformatics at the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.
Policies such as insurance integration and national standards aim to close the “huge” gap between scientific research, industry and clinical application, he said.
“The road from experiments to clinical trials is quite long and that’s still a problem,” he told Reuters, adding that many Chinese hospitals have established BCI research laboratories to speed up the process.
While U.S. startups like Neuralink focus on invasive chips that penetrate brain tissue, Chinese researchers are developing invasive, semi-invasive and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces with potential for broader clinical applications.
Semi-invasive brain-computer interfaces placed on the surface of the brain may lose some signal quality but reduce risks such as tissue damage and other postoperative complications. Neuralink’s surgical robot can insert hundreds of electrodes into the brain in minutes.
“It’s a technical advantage that I think is significant,” Neuralink’s Yao said.
“(But) China has actually made very rapid progress in this field now. In fact, Musk’s direction is basically achievable domestically.”
(Reporting by Laurie Chen. Editing by Mark Porter)