Chinese state media on Tuesday touted the emergence of a Chinese-made rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink technology, an implantable brain chip that would allow humans to directly connect with electronic devices.
It’s from China, Global Times out of breath Overhyped The China Brain Science Institute’s “New Cyber” chip is being called the “Chinese version of Neuralink,” but the product on display at the Beijing institute is far from Neuralink and has not yet been implanted in the human body. .
Global Times The journalists witnessed a “magic scene” in which monkeys equipped with Neucyber chips flickered their brainwave signals on a computer monitor.
New CyberArray BMI System, China’s self-developed brain-machine interface BMI system, at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing, China, April 25, 2024. (Xinhua News Agency, via Getty Images)
Project leaders said the chip has been implanted in the monkey’s skull for almost a year and is “still able to collect high-quality signals.” The next step is to design an algorithm to decode the brainwaves that would allow the monkey to control the robotic arm. If that works, the researchers hope to begin human clinical trials within a year.
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The advanced algorithm is a step towards the goal of creating neurally controlled prosthetics that are more human-like, natural and flexible for patients in the future. The team revealed that the researchers are working on publishing an academic paper on Neucyber, which utilizes the advanced algorithm.
China was clearly enthralled with Neuralink after Musk unveiled the first brain-computer interface (BCI) in January. Within a month, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology had Published “Ethical guidelines” to allow “clinical trials of innovative BCI products.”
Like everything else the Chinese Communist Party does, these “ethical guidelines” are full of escapes and exceptions, effectively giving Chinese scientists the power to do anything to catch up with their Western counterparts. is giving.
The most gruesome and amusing sentence in China’s ethical guidelines stipulates that cybernetics that interfere with human judgment or endanger “human autonomy and self-awareness” should be avoided “unless it can be definitively proven to be superior to human capabilities.”
of global times He is confident that China can gather “superior resources” to catch up and eventually take the lead in BCI, proudly pointing out that Neucyber was developed in less than a year. did. BCI is recognized by the communist regime as an important “cutting-edge emerging technology.”
“Industry insiders believe that China still has a chance to industrialize BCI products before the U.S., as BCI technology has not yet been widely used around the world as medical equipment,” he said. Global Times Said.
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Neuralink project suffered some damage A major setbackThe BCI implant implanted in the first patient, 30-year-old quadriplegic Noland Arbaugh, stopped working after the first 100 days because many of the hair-thin electrode threads rejected the brain tissue. has fallen by almost 85%.
Still, Neuralink is moving forward with a second human trial to place the implant deeper in the brain, and Arbaugh said Avid believer Among the technologies that made this possible: mental interface His computer system was good enough to play video games before his implants began to deteriorate. In fact, he set a world record for precise control of a computer cursor. This should be of interest to Chinese medical ethicists, who believe that restrictions on research should be lifted if BCIs are proven to be “superior to human capabilities.”
Arbaugh’s ability to use a computer is severely limited, and he has indicated he would like to undergo surgery again to repair or replace the implant, despite the objections of Neuralink doctors.
