Does China dream of man-machines (more than Elon Musk)?
China started late on computer-brain interfaces, but now the government is giving gas and in addition to their therapeutic uses it is also investigating other non-medical ones in order to "improve the cognitive abilities of healthy subjects". All the details
A monkey with soft electrode filaments implanted in its brain controlled an isolated robotic arm and grabbed a strawberry simply by using its "thoughts." This was reported by the State Council Information Office in Beijing, the main information office of the country's State Council.
The result was presented at the Zhongguancun 2024 Forum held in the capital at the end of last month and for China it was an opportunity to show the world that, although it started working on computer-brain interfaces later than the United States, now he has decided to speed up.
But if Neuralink and other companies in the sector claim, at least in intention, to have the noble aim of improving the lives of people living with serious health conditions, such as paralysis or blindness , Beijing seems to be much more brazen and, in ethical guidelines published by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in February cite among the objectives that of "improving the cognitive abilities of healthy subjects".
CHINA'S SLOW START ON COMPUTER-BRAIN INTERFACES
In February, Rivista Studio observed that, while Elon Musk announced to the world – not too quietly (as is his style) – that he had implanted the first chip of his Neuralink in the brain of a man, China had already conducted that type of intervention in October 2023. However, the news had – strangely – gone completely unnoticed: "It is not so much like 'Xi Jinping's China' to say something like this in a whisper, that is, to have carried out a decidedly relevant experiment before a “private American company,” the article notes.
Among other things, the patient, a person paralyzed for 14 years, according to Chinese sources, was responding well and was able to drink on his own thanks to a glove connected wirelessly to the brain implant.
The lack of emphasis given by the Chinese media, and consequently by those of the rest of the world, according to Rivista Studio is due to the fact that "the Chinese know one thing for sure: that they are behind on this type of technology". To put it bluntly is Qianzhan , a Chinese economics and IT website, which reads: “The BCI [ Brain Computer Interface ] industry in China started late and there is a gap between five and ten years with foreign countries".
Since this is one of the new challenges in the technological confrontation between China and the United States, Beijing has therefore understood that it must accelerate .
THE COMEBACK WITH THE TIANJIN LABORATORY
So the Dragon has included neural interfaces among the priorities of its scientific research. A year ago the South China Morning Post wrote about a dedicated laboratory, opened by the government in Tianjin, where 60 people work. The institute's goal is to transform research into practical applications, as already done with a device that connects to the brain through the inner ear.
This, unlike Neuralink's devices, does not require the implantation of a chip but is equally capable of providing "broadband data streaming" to the brain, The Independent explained. And Nature Communications , where the research is described, added that such technology could enable applications such as translating thoughts into text, controlling digital objects with thought alone, or even augmenting human memory.
WHERE DOES BEIJING WANT TO GO?
Although various countries are developing computer-brain interfaces, mainly for medical purposes, what is concerning is China's intentions for doing so. A statement last January, released by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and reported by Gizmodo , announced that Beijing aims in the coming years to "make progress in key technologies and major devices, such as brain-computer fusion, brain-like chips and neural brain-computing models”, which will inevitably be joined by generative artificial intelligence (AIg).
The idea is to develop several products with easy-to-use brain interfaces that can be used, for example, for driverless driving, virtual reality and medical rehabilitation.
However, the ethical guidelines developed by a PCC commission give indications both regarding "therapeutic" BCIs, i.e. designed to help people with neurological disabilities, and "augmentative" BCIs, i.e. designed to "improve the abilities of healthy people". However, the document calls for "moderation" in the adoption of these technologies, particularly in the case of augmentative BCIs, which, we read, "could exacerbate social inequalities if adopted without restrictions".
NON-THERAPEUTIC USES OF BCIs
It is no coincidence, the guidelines state, “those who engage in the study of BCIs should ensure that their research has social value, focusing primarily on restorative BCI technologies and underlining the need to meet the health needs of the public through the development of technology."
“Non-medical purposes – we read -, such as attention modulation, sleep regulation, memory regulation and exoskeletons for augmentative BCI technologies, should be explored and developed to some extent, provided that there is strict regulation and clear benefit. The research project must be scientifically rational, operational and of scientific value".
However, it is also stated that “because this technology is still in the early stages of development, the scope, the appropriate degree of enhancement and the long-term impacts on humans are not yet clear and present unknown risks”.
THE (CHINESE) FUTURE OF BCIs
The BCI, also known as Bmi ( Brain-machine interface ), as a frontier technology of human-computer interaction, "has been an important force that has driven a new cycle of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change", declares the State Council Information Office in Beijing.
And according to experts who participated in the Zhongguancun Forum, China is becoming not only an important innovation hub but also a reference market for Bmi technology. “China is among the countries with the largest number of scientific research projects on BMI, with large-scale and rapidly growing scientific research output, and its invention patent applications involving BMI account for more than half of global total,” said Gu Xiaosong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Beijing also recently laid out a roadmap to accelerate the development of BMI industry: “By 2026, the city will achieve progress in BMI core technologies and cultivate a number of leading enterprises. By 2030, with BMI's independent and well-developed technological system, hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises in the sector will be cultivated in the capital, forming an industrial cluster."
The widespread use of Bmi technology corresponds in fact to an enormous potential market because, as the State Council Information Office reminds us, according to McKinsey & Company, in the medical sector alone the potential global market of the Bmi industry should reach 40 billion dollars between 2030 and 2040, but its potential extends to many sectors. Beijing will currently focus on medicine, healthcare, industrial safety, education, sports and smart life.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/la-cina-sogna-uomini-macchina-piu-di-elon-musk/ on Mon, 13 May 2024 13:54:57 +0000.