In July, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) convened in Shanghai, with brain-computer interface (BCI) emerging as one of the most watched tracks at this year's event.

A thousand miles away in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area(GBA), the race over "mind control" has long transcended concept demonstrations on exhibition floors to become a daily reality in hospital wards. In March this year, BCI was officially written into the Government Work Report for the first time, securing its place among the six future industries of the 15th Five-Year Plan. While the world is still debating "what BCI can do," Guangdong is already answering "whose lives BCI is changing."

Currently, Guangdong boasts over 100 key enterprises holding product registration certificates or active R&D pipelines for BCI, while more than 10 top-tier Class 3A hospitals have established specialized BCI wards. This June, South China's first fully invasive BCI implantation surgery was successfully performed at Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University. Through mind-control training, a quadriplegic patient is now expected to gradually learn how to operate external devices using thought alone.

To bring this clinical "superpower" within reach for all, the integration of medicine and engineering serves as the essential key to industrialization. In May this year, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University partnered with the Huangpu District People's Government to establish the Greater Bay Area Biomedical Future Industry Innovation Center. The initiative sets up an acceleration mechanism covering the entire pipeline from proof-of-concept to commercial transformation—through which clinical doctors define pain points and engineering experts tackle technical bottlenecks, collectively accelerating the incubation and deployment of high-quality projects.

意念控制，广东凭何有“超能力”？

盛夏七月，2026世界人工智能大会在上海举行。脑机接口成为本届WAIC最受瞩目的赛道之一。

在相隔千里的粤港澳大湾区，这场关于“意念控制”的竞赛早已不是展台上的概念演示，而是病房里每天都在发生的真实故事。今年3月，脑机接口首次写入政府工作报告，跻身“十五五”六大未来产业之列。当世界还在讨论“脑机接口能做什么”，广东已经在回答“脑机接口正在改变谁的生活”。

目前，广东全省拥有脑机接口产品注册证或在研产品的重点企业已超过100家，十多家三甲医院开设脑机接口病房。今年6月，华南地区首例全侵入式脑机接口植入手术在南方医科大学珠江医院完成。四肢完全瘫痪的患者，经过脑控训练后有望逐步学会用意念控制外部设备。

让病房里的“超能力”人人可及，医工融合是产业化的核心关键。今年5月，中山三院与黄埔区政府联合成立大湾区生物医药未来产业创新中心，设立从概念验证到产业转化的加速机制——临床医生提出痛点，工科专家攻关技术，推动优质项目加速孵化落地。

策划 | 吴江
统筹 | 刘佳宁
文字 | 陈泽云
设计 | 范英兰
翻译 | 徐芷晴
英文审校 | 曾敏