Synchron CEO: China's moving very quickly in brain-computer interface

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies are gaining global attention, and according to Tom Oxley, CEO and founder of U.S.-based BCI company Synchron, China is advancing at a remarkable speed.

Speaking to CGTN during the 2025 Summer Davos Forum in north China's Tianjin Municipality, Oxley shared insights into the company's recent collaboration with Apple. 

"It's very exciting," he said. "It's called human interface device, HID … a type of Bluetooth protocol. It will be an industry standard that will enable BCI companies to send control signals directly from the brain." 

Previously, devices had to be tricked into interpreting brain signals as keyboard or mouse input. Now, with this native integration, "it's coming directly from the brain," he said.

The partnership highlights Synchron's broader ambition to make BCI systems seamless and intuitive. Oxley also discussed the company's plans announced last year of integrating ChatGPT into its BCI system. He sees artificial intelligence (AI) playing a key role in the future of BCI, saying, "There's a natural synergy between BCI and AI," particularly through the use of unsupervised learning to interpret unstructured brain data and extract meaningful signals.

When it comes to international BCI development, Oxley sees China as a major player. "China is growing very quickly," he said. "There are several BCI companies emerging, and it looks like the government has a very clear strategic view on this technology… It looks to me that the field of BCI is moving very, very quickly in China."

As for how close we are to making BCI tech widely accessible, especially for people with severe mobility issues, Oxley noted that no company has yet received regulatory approval for commercial use of implantable BCIs. He expects the first applications to benefit patients with paralysis or neurological disorders, and believes large-scale adoption could begin around the 2040s, particularly if less invasive procedures like Synchron's catheter-based system continue to develop. That means millions of people can receive it rather than tens of thousands," he said.

Looking ahead, Oxley is optimistic about BCI's potential beyond the medical field. "If it's safe and easy to use, it will enable us to use our brains in a way which is much better than normal… But people thinking this is happening very soon, I don't think it's happening very soon," he said. "That said, I do think there'll be a quick ramp of the technology."

(Cover image by Jia Jieqiong)