CNN
–
China Brain Tech rivals Musk’s Neuralink
“I want to eat” appeared in Kanji on a computer at a public hospital in Central Beijing. The term was formed from the idea of a 67-year-old woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The video demonstration shot by Beijing Radio and TV stations in March was part of a clinical trial that included five patients, including five patients implanted with a coin-sized chip called Beinao-1, a wireless so-called brain computer interface (BCI), but the technology led by US scientists says experts are catching up quickly.
Luo Minmin, director of China’s Brain Institute (CIBR) and the lead scientist behind the trial, said there was a “very powerful” need for BCI technology, and was “overwhelmed” in response to requests from potential patients.
“The patient said this feels very pleasant so that he could gain or recover control of his (his) muscles,” he told CNN in May in a rare interview in his lab, an hour’s drive from Beijing Xuanwu Hospital, where the trial took place.
Luo said the technology shows “high accuracy” in deciphering signals from a patient’s brain and converting the signals into text-voice or machine movements. His team plans to speed up human trials by implanting chips in another 50-100 patients over the next year.
“We hope to be able to move through this process faster,” he said. “If it has proven safe and effective, it can be used clinically worldwide.”
As of May, Beinao-1 says that five patients, the same number of patients, have implants, as Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Syncron, another US company whose investors include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, has been tested with 10 patients, six in the US and four in Australia.
Maximilian Liesenharbor, a professor of neuroscience at Georgetown University, told CNN that China is progressing despite not being involved in Beinao’s trial, but began later than the US.
“China has certainly shown the ability to not only catch up, but also be competitive and actually start, driving the field in some regions,” he said. “Excitingly, there is a lot of research activities in both countries because they recognize the potential of BCI.”
The brain technology market is worth around $2.6 billion last year and is expected to increase to $12.4 billion by 2034, according to a market research firm Priority Survey. However, in both China and the US, the technology is far more than cash.
China’s leader Xi Jinping has been hoping to transform his country into a scientific economic powerhouse. In March, he wrote in state-owned media that the tech industry has become the “frontline” and “major battlefield” of global competition. His ambitions sparked concern in the United States, leading to an ongoing technological warfare, especially in the semiconductor industry.
CIBR was co-founded in 2018 by the Beijing Municipal Government and several local governments, about two years after Elon Musk established Neuralink near San Francisco.
In 2023, CIBR incubated a private company named Neucyber Neurotech to focus on brain technology products such as Beinao-1. Luo, also the startup’s chief scientist, gave CNN a rare access to the lab in May.
For years, ALS patients in their 60s were unable to express themselves.
“She’s awake, she knows what she wants, but she couldn’t speak up,” the scientist said. “Following the port, she can speak simple sentences very accurately through the system.”
All BCI researchers need to address a balance between risk and effectiveness.
Riensenhuber places the chips in Dura Mater, the outer layer of tissue that covers and protects the brain and spinal cord, in order to capture better signals, using more invasive methods. However, these methods require high-risk surgery.
“It’s interesting to see that Neucyber appears to be able to get enough information, even through Dura, to allow for the decoding of certain words,” he said.
The test of ALS patients, which began in March, marked the third trial of Beinao-1 tip in humans. These trials constituted what the developers described in a press release as “the first batch of semi-invasive implants of wireless BCI in the human brain.” As of May, a total of five tests and two more were being conducted.
Amidst growing geopolitical tensions, comparisons between the US and China’s technological breakthroughs are common. Brain Computer Interface technology first began in the United States in the 1970s.
Decades later, the Obama administration launched its “Brain Initiative” in 2013, investing more than $3 billion to fund more than 1,000 neuroscience and technology projects, according to the National Institutes of Health.
New York-based Synchron was the first company to begin human testing in July 2021. Three years later, the new BCI system developed at UC Davis Health translated brain signals from ALS patients into speech, achieving 97% accuracy. In the same year, the mask company completed its first human trial, allowing participants to control computer mice with brain implants.
China was launched with Brain Tech only in the 1990s, but is progressing rapidly. In 2014, Chinese scientists presented ideas for national projects on Brain Tech in line with similar efforts in the US and Europe, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. Two years later, Brain Tech was mentioned in the country’s five-year plan. It outlines China’s national priorities and goals.
“Neuroscience is new in China,” said Lily Lin, a former research assistant at one of China’s top neuroscience research units from 2021 to 2023.
Last year, the government issued the first ethical guidelines for research in this field. At the local level, city governments in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities provide support to brain technology companies, from research and clinical trials to commercialization.
Riesenhuber and other researchers from Georgetown University published a study on BCI development in China in 2024, saying that efforts from Chinese researchers are “compared to refinement” with US and UK researchers.
“We found that China’s non-invasive BCI research is comparable to studies in other scientifically developed countries, working to overcome obstacles to greater fidelity, throughput and wider use,” according to the issue’s explanation. “China’s invasive BCI research, historically behind its non-invasive efforts, has been increasing its pace and approaching global standards of refinement.”
Luo, who has worked in both countries, says the US is a “front runner” of both invasive and non-invasive brain technology. But comparing Beinao-1 with Neuralink is like seeing “apples and oranges.”
The two systems differ not only in the implant location, but also in the type of brain signals recorded and the way data is transmitted. Chinese chips record a wider range of brain regions and reduce the accuracy of each neuron.
“Overall, I don’t think these two products have a competitive or exclusive relationship,” Luo added. “The ju umpire hasn’t been out yet, so it’s still not clear which route will ultimately benefit patients.”
