Elon Musk's Neuralink killed 1,500 animals in four years; Now under trial for animal cruelty: Report

[Eric]

Elon Musk's Neuralink killed 1,500 animals in four years; Now under trial for animal cruelty: Report

Neuralink, founded in 2016, is working on a brain implant to restore movement to the paralyzed and treat other neurological disorders.

me.mashable.com

Elon Musk's Neuralink killed 1,500 animals in four years; Now under trial for animal cruelty: Report​

Based on a review of dozens of Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees, Reuters has concluded that the investigation coincides with rising employee dissent regarding Neuralink's animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Elon Musk to accelerate development has resulted in botched experiments. Employees claim that because of the need to redo tests that initially failed, more animals have been subjected to experiments and murdered.

Elon Musk's Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal welfare violations amid complaints from internal staff, a Reuters report says. The report says that internal documents and sources suggest that animal testing is being done too quickly, which causes animals to suffer and die needlessly.

Neuralink, founded in 2016, is working on a brain implant to restore movement to the paralyzed and treat other neurological disorders. Two people familiar with the investigation have confirmed that the Inspector General of the United States Department of Agriculture initiated the previously undisclosed criminal investigation at the request of a federal prosecutor in recent months.

According to the report, the Animal Welfare Act, which governs the treatment and use of animals in scientific research and testing, is the primary focus of this investigation. The Animal Welfare Act was passed in 1966 to set rules for how animals used for research should be treated.

 

[fooferdoggie]

maybe he should test it on Qanon Volk.

 

[AG_PhamD]

I watched bits and pieces of his recent presentation on Neuralink… much of what I saw was Musk extolling how ethically their test animals were treated.

This may have something to do with the news back in February 2022 that 15 of 23 monkeys were killed or required euthanasia as a result of botched experimentation.

I am very suspect of the claims Musk has made around Neuralink, particularly claims around solving mental health problems and non-medical uses. Brain-computer interfaces have been around for decades, the problem typically is the implants cause inflammation/immune reactions, infection, and scarring (which progresses ultimately impedes neural communication). Technology has advanced to give us small, powerful, power efficient computer chips and now AI, but whether or not the hurdles of an implanted device can be overcome is still a problem that has to be solved.

What Musk demonstrated recently with a chimpanzee controlling a mouse is not novel. This has been achieved before by other companies long ago and with far less invasive methods.

Animal testing is an unfortunate but absolutely necessary aspect of medical research and development. That doesn’t mean however animals don’t need to be treated without respect or as expendable. As I understand, 1500 deaths in 4 years would be a rather high number- I assume the majority of these are rodents. Ely Lilly (a much larger, much more diversified company) in ~12 years reportedly killed 2,200 dogs, rabbits, primates (not including mice or rats).

Animal Testing is heavily regulated by at least a few agencies. So if there is wrongdoing here it will investigated and dealt with. But pressure from the top is no excuse for researchers breaching ethical standards.