Elon Musk's company is facing new challenge from China's latest tech progress
China's first clinical trial of a technology that allows signals from the brain to control an external device has proved successful, making it only the second country after the US to reach this stage, a report has said. Until now, Elon Musk-owned
Neuralink
has been able to successfully implant a brain chip in a human, enabling him to carry out tasks like control a computer mouse using his thoughts.
Citing Global Times, Bloomberg reported that Chinese researchers used brain-computer interfaces, or BCI, a wireless invasive implant in a patient with tetraplegia in March. Only a few weeks after the surgery, the patient was able to play racing games and chess on the computer using only the mind to control the electronic devices, it said, citing a statement from the Shanghai-based Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology.
How China's tech is different from Musk-owned Neuralink
The implant used in the Chinese trial is said to be the world's smallest so far, with a diameter of 26 millimeters and thickness less than 6 millimeters and is over 100 times more flexible than the one developed by Neuralink.
For the next stage, the team plans to enable the patient to operate a robotic arm using thoughts to perform more complex physical actions such as grasping and holding a cup. The centre launched the trial in collaboration with Fudan University's Huashan Hospital.
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The centre said the BCI system could get approval from the authorities, and be able to enter the market as early as 2028.
BCI is an emerging technology to help restore functionality to people with paralysis, and Neuralink, co-founded by
Elon Musk
appears to be the only company that has successfully trialled the implant in humans.
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Time of India
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Live Events Tesla chief Elon Musk, who also owns social media company X, was a leading adviser to the US president before the two fell out, while the bosses of Amazon, Meta and Google-owner Alphabet took prominent spots at Trump's inauguration in January. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Days before Trump took office, outgoing president Joe Biden had warned of an oligarchic "tech industrial complex" threatening democracy. Berlin-based search engine Ecosia says it has benefited from some customers' desire to avoid US counterparts like Microsoft's Bing or Google, which dominates web searches and is also the world's biggest email provider. "The worse it gets, the better it is for us," founder Christian Kroll said of Ecosia, whose sales pitch is that it spends its profits on environmental projects. 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Time of India
an hour ago
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Death cap alert: Experts urge caution amid spike in poisonous mushroom growth in Australia
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Time of India
an hour ago
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