2024 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference丨"Science Fiction" Brain Computer, how far is it from life

At the 2024 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, brain-computer interface has become one of the hot words. Following the release of the implantable brain-computer interface "Beibrain No. 2" independently developed by mainland scientists at the opening ceremony of the annual meeting of the forum as one of the major achievements, on April 26, the parallel forum "Brain-Computer Interface Innovation Development and Application Forum" relayed and once again released a series of blockbuster contents including innovation cases and industrial development action plans. It is foreseeable that the development of the brain-computer interface industry has entered the fast lane.

Enter a period of technological explosion

"After nearly 50 years of development, brain-computer interfaces have now entered a period of technological explosion." In an interview after the parallel forum, Gao Xiaorong, a tenured professor at Tsinghua University, said.

Three important achievements were released at the parallel forum on the same day, including the top ten cases of brain-computer interface industry innovation, the Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of the Brain-Computer Interface Industry in Beijing (2024-2030) (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), and the "Chinese Expert Consensus on the Implementation and Management of Clinical Research on Brain-Computer Interface in Neurological Diseases".

Brain-computer interface refers to the direct connection created between the human or animal brain and external devices, so as to realize the exchange of information between the brain and the device.

At present, brain-computer interface technology can be divided into two categories: invasive and non-invasive, among which non-invasive brain-computer interface is mainly used for early screening and auxiliary diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases, and invasive brain-computer interface is mainly used for refractory brain diseases. Based on the different medical application scenarios of brain-computer interface, it can also be divided into three categories: serious medical scenarios, consumption scenarios, and serious medical and consumption scenarios.

In the interview, Gu Xiaosong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the brain-computer interface industry has developed rapidly in recent years, especially its combination with artificial intelligence, which can solve many problems that cannot be solved before, bringing new opportunities for scientific and technological innovation and high-quality development.

In terms of application, Gu Xiaosong said, for example, that some of the communication of astronauts in space is realized through brain-computer interface and cutting-edge technology of artificial intelligence. In addition, many new wearable medical devices have emerged in the medical field, and brain-computer interfaces can also play a good role in the regulation of neuro-emotional functions.

Gao Xiaorong also mentioned that the application of domestic brain-computer interface technology in various fields is being continuously explored, and its process may follow the sequence of medical-health-entertainment/metaverse development.

Taking consumer-grade products as an example, in 2020, BrainCo's first product, BrainCo Intelligent Bionic Hand, achieved mass production, and in 2022, BrainCo achieved mass production of 100,000 units of high-precision brain-computer interface products, breaking through the engineering and technical problems of consumer-level brain-computer interface devices.

Lack of market awareness

According to McKinsey's research report, the global market size of brain-computer interfaces from 2030 to 2040 may be between $70 billion and $200 billion per year. According to the statistics of the Research Report on the Development and Application of Brain-Computer Interface Technology (2023), as of the first quarter of 2023, there are more than 500 representative brain-computer interface companies in the world, and related companies are active in more than 40 countries, with the number of companies in the United States and China exceeding 100, ranking in the first echelon in the world.

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other seven departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovation and Development of Future Industries", and "brain-computer interface" was included in the top ten landmark products of the future industry, which clearly required "breakthroughs in key technologies and core devices such as brain-computer fusion, brain-like chips, and brain computing neural models, and the development of a number of easy-to-use and safe brain-computer interface products, and encouraged the exploration of applications in typical fields such as medical rehabilitation, unmanned driving, and virtual reality".

However, as far as the overall situation is concerned, the brain-computer interface industry is still in the early stage of development. Taking the field of medical rehabilitation as an example, Zhao Jizong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, mentioned to a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that brain-computer interfaces are "still far from mature applications". Zhao Jizong said that at present, brain-computer interface technology is still in the "laboratory stage", and even if it is applied in clinical practice, it is a "laboratory" for specific scenarios.

In Zhao Jizong's view, there are still several steps to go before the application of brain-computer interface in the field of medical rehabilitation can be developed to a mature stage. For example, even if you look at the world, there is no unified standard for the chips used in brain-computer interfaces. "On the other hand, clinical trials are a very long-term process, just like some new drugs have just been developed and work well, but after a period of time, they may gradually discover their side effects, which is the same reason," Zhao said.

For the "Chinese Expert Consensus on Clinical Research on Brain-Computer Interface for Nervous System Diseases" released at the parallel forum, Zhao Jizong mentioned that the brain-computer interface has formed an industry consensus, manufacturers are in production, and hospitals also need to apply it clinically, but there is no corresponding ethical norm at present, which hinders the application of hospitals, "so using this opportunity to release such a consensus can also provide corresponding reference for units that want to carry out brain-computer interface research, which is a very urgent need for clinical practice."

At the consumer level, He Xiyujin, partner and senior vice president of BrainCo Strong Brain Technology, also mentioned to a reporter from Beijing Business Daily that for the public, brain-computer interface technology is a very new "future technology", and there is still a lack of market awareness.

In terms of commercialization, He Xiyujin said that BrainCo's consumer-grade brain-computer interface products have been initially commercialized, while most of the medical-grade brain-computer interface products are still in the research and development process of major university laboratories and research institutes, and the commercial landing problems will be more complex.

"But there is no doubt that with the advancement of technology and the development of the market, the commercialization process of both medical grade and consumer grade is unstoppable, and there will be more types of brain-computer interface products to provide more diversified solutions for the 1 billion people suffering from brain diseases around the world. He Xiyu brocade said.

The key is to reduce costs

The purpose of scientific and technological innovation is application, and the brain-computer interface, as one of the future industries, is also facing the "application problem", especially in the face of commercialization, cost, price, ethics, etc. have become unavoidable topics.

Will the brain-computer interface become another "mobile phone"? In the many years that the brain-computer interface has entered the public eye as a science fiction character, people have thought about this problem more than once. However, Gu Xiaosong believes that whether the brain-computer interface will become a new terminal depends on whether the cost can be reduced and whether everyone can afford it.

According to public reports, the team of Professor Hong Bo of Tsinghua University School of Medicine designed and developed the wireless minimally invasive implanted brain-computer interface NEO technology, Hong Bo once mentioned that without considering the cost of early research and development and production, in the clinical trial stage, a minimally invasive brain-computer interface test roughly calculated to cost 300,000 to 500,000 yuan. After completing a series of large and small clinical trials, or needing to enroll dozens or even more patients, the costs and risks behind them need to be borne by relevant companies.

He Xiyujin also said that cost control is a big challenge, and it is necessary to work with upstream and downstream industry chain enterprises to achieve cost reduction through technological progress and scale effect.

Gao Xiaorong raised several issues from an ethical point of view, such as the current brain-computer interface chip implantation, which cannot be controlled at any time after the implantation of the brain-computer interface chip, which may lead to the transmission of some unnecessary information to patients. In addition, the current brain-computer interface technology has not yet reached the level of no damage to the brain, so it is necessary to find a trade-off between human benefits and damages.

What's more critical and tricky is that the brain-computer interface technology does not yet have an "eraser", which cannot guarantee that the input information can be effectively corrected once there is a problem. "It's like a painting process, when you can paint at one time without relying on eraser, your painting skills must have reached the level of perfection, but if the level is not enough, you must use the eraser to complete the work better," Gao Xiaorong said.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Yang Yuehan