At a technology forum in Beijing last week, a Chinese company unveiled a “homegrown” brain-computer interface that allowed a monkey to apparently control a robotic arm just by thinking about it.
In a video shown at the event, a monkey with its hands tied uses the interface to move a robotic arm and grab a strawberry. The system, developed by NeuCyber NeuroTech and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, involves strands of soft electrodes implanted in the brain, according to state media Xinhua.
Researchers in the US have He tested similar systems on paralyzed people. to allow them to control robotic arms, but the demonstration underscores China’s progress in developing its own brain-computer interface technology and competing with the West.
Brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, collect and analyze brain signals, often to enable direct control of an external device, such as a robotic arm, keyboard, or smartphone. In the United States, a group of startups, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink, aim to commercialize the technology.
William Hannas, senior analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), says China is quickly catching up with the United States in terms of its BCI technology. “They are very motivated,” he says of the Asian superpower. “They are doing cutting edge work, or at least as cutting edge as anyone else in the world.”
He says China has typically lagged behind the United States in invasive BCIs, meaning those implanted in or on the brain’s surface, choosing instead to focus on non-invasive technology worn on the head. But it is quickly catching up with implantable interfaces, which are being explored for medical applications.
Most worrying, however, is China’s interest in non-invasive BCIs for the general population. hannas He co-authored a report published in March which examines Chinese research on BCIs for non-medical purposes.
“China is not at all timid about this,” he says, referring to ethical guidelines published by the Communist Party in February 2024 that include cognitive enhancement of healthy people as a goal of Chinese BCI research. TO translation of the guidelines by CSET says: “Non-medical purposes, such as attention modulation, sleep regulation, memory regulation and exoskeletons for augmentative BCI technologies, should be explored and developed to some extent, as long as there is strict regulation and a clear benefit.”
The translated Chinese guidelines go on to say that BCI technology should avoid replacing or weakening human decision-making capabilities “before it is proven to exceed human levels and obtain social consensus, and avoid research that significantly interferes with or blurs autonomy and human self-awareness.
These non-medical applications refer to wearable BCIs that rely on electrodes placed on the scalp, also known as electroencephalography or EEG devices. However, electrical signals from the scalp are much more difficult to interpret than those from inside the brain, and much effort is being made in China to use machine learning techniques to improve the analysis of brain signals, according to the report. CSET.
A handful of US companies are also developing wearable BCIs that arguably fall into the cognitive enhancement category. For example, Emotiv of San Francisco and Neurable of Boston are starting to sell EEG headsets aimed at improving attention and concentration. The US Department of Defense has also funded research on wearable interfaces which could ultimately allow control of cyber defense systems or drones by military personnel.