A silent and profound technological revolution is accelerating in China. After being first included in the "future industries" at the beginning of 2024, brain-computer interface (BCI) officially became a national strategic technology direction in July 2025, and was written into the list of forward-looking layouts in the 14th Five-Year Plan. According to the latest data from CCTV Finance, the Chinese BCI market is expected to reach 3.2 billion yuan in 2024, and exceed 120 billion yuan by 2040, with an annual compound growth rate as high as 26%—this means that mind control and neural interaction are no longer just science fiction, but will become the core infrastructure of the next generation of the digital economy.

From the laboratory to industry, BCI is on the brink of explosion

The brain-computer interface is undergoing a key transition from "concept validation" to "scenario implementation." Currently, domestic research institutions and companies have made breakthroughs in medical rehabilitation (such as paralyzed patients controlling text with their thoughts), neural regulation (intervention for depression), and intelligent interaction (thought-controlled AR/VR). The strong support at the national level will further unblock the entire chain of chips, algorithms, clinical applications, and manufacturing, accelerating the commercialization of the technology.

Large Models Metaverse (1)

Image source note: The image is AI-generated, and the image licensing service provider is Midjourney.

AI Large Models: The "Intelligent Brain" of BCI

The explosion of brain-computer interfaces is inseparable from the exponential evolution of AI large models. Data shows that the daily token consumption of Chinese AI large models increased from 100 billion at the beginning of 2024 to 30 trillion by June 2025, a growth of 300 times. This remarkable leap not only reflects a surge in computing power investment, but also means that large models now have the ability to process high-dimensional neural signals and decode complex intentions—In the future, the brain waves collected by BCI devices will be interpreted in real time by large models into commands, text, or even images, achieving the ultimate interaction of "what you think is what you get."

Integrated Innovation: Creating New Quality Productivity

The deep integration of brain-computer interfaces and large models is creating unprecedented application scenarios:

Medical field: Patients with ALS can control AI-generated speech through their thoughts to achieve barrier-free communication;

Industrial scenarios: Engineers can remotely control robots to perform dangerous tasks with their "thoughts";

Education and entertainment: Students' concentration levels are fed back in real-time, and games switch plots based on "thoughts."

This combination of "neural + intelligence" is becoming an important engine for new quality productivity. The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have jointly launched a BCI special project to support key technology research and development and the construction of standard systems.

AIbase believes that China's inclusion of brain-computer interfaces in its national strategy is not only a technological positioning, but also an active definition of the future form of human-machine relationships. When AI large models become the translator between the brain and the digital world, the boundaries of human cognition will be completely expanded. In this competition for the future, China is actively seizing the technological high ground of the next decade with a three-pronged drive of "technology + industry + policy." The era of "thoughts" for each individual may arrive faster than imagined.