Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis received the Chinese government’s friendship award, the greatest honor to a foreign expert for the implementation of the Walking Project at the Xuanwu Hospital, one of the largest specialized brain centers in the country.
Nicolelis participated in a ceremony to host the medal on January 25, and also attended a dinner with authorities from the country on the 26th. The Brazilian was sitting between Prime Minister Li Qiang and Chancellor Wang Yi.
In an interview with CNN, Miguel Nicolelis pointed out that the results achieved in China were “spectacular” and should be published in the coming months. He said that patients with total paralysis evolved to partial paralysis, and some managed to walk without exoskeletons, only with small supports.
“This shows that, as we had predicted 2014, non-invasive brain-machine interfaces, which do not require neurosurgical implants, work very well and allow the rehabilitation of a very large number of patients,” he celebrated.
The doctor talked to the premie and the Chancellor of China for about an hour. THE CNN, He revealed that they consider the interface area “brain-machine” strategic for the country, having demonstrated deep knowledge about it.
“It was a surprising conversation. I never had such a deep conversation about neuroscience with politicians, nowhere in the world, ”he said.
Still about receiving the honor, the neuroscientist reported that it was a great emotion and had never participated in a ceremony of the type. As he explained, this is a big event in the pre-Ano New Chinese calendar.
“It really demonstrated a appreciation not only with me, but with all the other scientists who were awarded, which I had never seen. So it was a great emotion and, as Brazilian, I felt in a way representing Brazilian science, ”he celebrates.
Deepseek is a change in the global axis of science and technology, says Nicolelis
Miguel Nicolelis was in China when the news of the launch of Artificial Intelligence DeepSeek reverberated worldwide and shook the actions of technology companies.
The startup featured a ChatgPT -like AI model called R1, which has all its skills, operating at a fraction of the cost of OpenAi, Google or Goal models, for example.
“They [DeepSeek] dismantled the Business Plan of the American Big Five, who said that to do what they did, it took hundreds of billions of dollars, to create DATA CENTERS Gigantic, charge a fortune of users. They put it at Open Source, ”said the expert to CNN.
The neuroscientist referred to the main US technology companies, called Big Five, whose actions had a significant drop after the launch of DeepSeek.
Nicolelis stated that this was a change in the global axis of science and tenology similar to landing on the moon or the launch of the Sputnik satellite.
“Soon after, other companies – Alibaba and others – began to release their models [de IA]. So it won’t be the only Chinese model to surprise the world. And all done in a completely different business model, ”he said.
“So, no wonder the American stock exchange on Monday following the announcement lost $ 1 trillion. Because it was clear that you didn’t need the state -of -the -art chips to run these models [de IA]they used chips of a much smaller generation, much older. And now they are saying they will use Chinese chips produced there, ”he added.
Chinese government demonstrated “interest in partnerships with Brazil”
THE CNN, Miguel Nicolelis also revealed that he witnessed China’s interest in establishing a series of partnerships with Brazil.
He pointed out that one of the reasons for this is because China has no openness to new “grand partnerships” with the United States and Europe, for example, but that Chinese are aware that Brazil has one of the largest universities networks public in the world, where much of the national tip research is done.
“Brazil emerges as a spectacular alternative, even because relations with Brazil are very good, and relationships, for example, with India are not so good. So, Brazil is a is a clear partner, ”he said.
Still, the neuroscientist warned that it is necessary to provide the necessary resources for Brazilian universities, aiming at both their development and that of national science.
In addition, for partnerships with China to be better established, interlocutors are needed to “bridge” with the Brazilian government.
This content was originally published in neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis receives a higher state honor of China on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
