China Makes Brain Implant Technology a Priority

Computer chips embedded in human brains are a recurring feature in science-fiction stories, but the real-world equivalent of this technology has already arrived. Neuralink made headlines in early 2024 for placing a brain-computer interface (BCI) into a paralyzed man which allowed him to, among other things, play video games using just his thoughts.

Neuralink, which is owned by Elon Musk, may be the highest-profile company working on this technology, but they’re far from the only one. And just like Chinese companies are making advances in GLP-1 drugs, so too are they making big strides when it comes to BCIs. In an article for Nature, Smriti Mallapaty provided a good overview of the state of the industry there, writing that while Chinese companies may not be as advanced as their American counterparts when it comes to linking the human brain to a chip, they are working at a rapid pace.

The article focuses on the work being done by several companies. Among them is StairMed, whose device, Mallapaty writes, “is smaller and less invasive” than Neuralink’s BCI. Investors seem interested; last August, StairMed announced that it had raised “several hundred million yuan” in financing. (One hundred million yuan is equivalent to $13.9 million at the current rate of exchange.)

Another company cited in the article, NeuroXess, developed a chip that allowed one patient to communicate in Mandarin after a tumor affected the patient’s ability to process language.

That’s one of several cases where brain chips have allowed people who had lost the ability to speak to communicate with others. In 2023, a group of researchers based at the University of California San Francisco were able to use a brain chip to allow someone with locked-in syndrome to interface with other people. But as scientists around the world advance this technology further and tout the near-miraculous advances, it’s also worth considering the risks.