FROM SOCIAL NETWORKS: AI for the Benefit of Humanity

Dan Brown's latest novel, Origin, a story that reflects on what it means to be human in this era marked by technology and geopolitics, seems to be the alter ego of a news story currently circulating on social networks: China successfully enables a patient with spinal cord injuries and paralysis to walk again, thanks to a brain implant.

Although this astonishing achievement was made public this past March, it is at the time of writing these lines that the topic is multiplying across social networks, for reasons unknown.

It almost seems like science fiction, much like the plot of Brown's aforementioned novel, who is also the author of the bestseller The Da Vinci Code. But if in his latest literary work technology is used for evil, for the domination of humankind; this contribution from China shows how AI and other cutting-edge advances can be focused on the well-being of our species.

The website of Fudan University reported that "After undergoing minimally invasive brain-spine interface (BSI) surgery at Huashan Hospital of Fudan University, a patient paralyzed for two years due to a spinal cord injury regained movement in his legs yesterday (24 hours later)."

This is a breakthrough by the team of Professor Jia Fumin, from the Brain Science and Technology Research Institute at Fudan University, in collaboration with Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai.

Thanks to the world's first "triply integrated brain-spine interface technology" developed by Jia's team, the patient, surnamed Lin, became the world's first completely paraplegic individual to regain his ability to walk through minimally invasive brain-spine interface (BSI) surgery technology.

Two years ago, according to the Fudan University site, Lin, 30 years old, suffered severe spinal cord injuries and a cerebral hemorrhage after falling from a four-meter-high ladder. The injury severed the neuronal connection between his brain and spinal cord responsible for walking, which left his legs completely inoperable and confined him to a wheelchair.

Jia's team built a bypass between the brain and the spinal cord with AI assistance, implanting electrodes in a four-hour procedure.

The Chinese press agency Xinhua details that there are now four patients in that country who have recovered motor ability after this surgery using an innovative "brain-spinal cord interface" technology.

Unlike external assistive devices, this system creates an internal "neural bypass," allowing patients to control their limbs naturally.

Definitively, in the field of neuroscience, this contribution will not be a secret, much less the last—parodying the title of Brown's novel—but rather a compelling piece of evidence of the good use of AI and advanced technologies.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff