China initiates effort to standardise brain-computer interfaces

China’s government is working on developing standards for brain-computer interfaces. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced plans to form a technical committee for this purpose. The committee will develop brain-computer interface standards for data encoding, communication, visualisation, electroencephalogram data collection, and applications in medicine, health, education, and entertainment while considering ethics and safety.

Members of the committee will come from relevant research institutions and government departments. Once the standards are set, Chinese researchers will be organised into clusters, all adhering to these new guidelines. The strategy aims to streamline efforts and allow China to set international standards before other countries, giving its local manufacturers an early advantage.

Why does it matter?

China has a history of trying to lead in international standards, as seen with Huawei’s 5.5G technology and its ambitions in IPv6 standards. While some efforts have failed, China continues to push for influence in standards bodies, which observers note can be susceptible to manipulation. Other bodies are already working to set standards on brain-computer interfaces, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) group on Neurotechnologies for Brain-Machine Interfacing. Moreover, private companies like Elon Musk’s Neuralink are also making strides in this field, which, if successful, might overshadow these standardisation efforts.