Elon Musk's medical neurotechnology company Neuralink (Tesla, Space X, Twitter) is under investigation by federal authorities in the US after animal rights organizations, as well as employees themselves, complained about hasty and careless experiments on animals leading to unnecessary torture or death.
Neuralink is rushing - as it has fallen behind its original schedule - to develop a brain implant that is being touted as a "miracle" solution that will, among other things, allow the paralyzed to walk and the blind to regain their sight. Musk - as usual - has made impressive promises and is under pressure to show some tangible results, which seems to have an impact on the way the company conducts its research with laboratory animals.
The federal investigation
The federal investigation, now first made public by an exclusive Reuters report, is being conducted by the US Department of Agriculture's inspector general at the request of a federal prosecutor who is looking into allegations that Neuralink violated animal welfare laws in the field of scientific research.
The investigation comes amid complaints from company staff that they are under pressure from CEO Elon Musk to speed up experiments and development of the brain implant, which has resulted in an increasing number of animals being killed recently. So far, neither Musk nor the company have commented on the article with the allegations.
It is estimated that around 1,500 animals (excluding rodents) have been killed in Neuralink's experiments since 2018 to date, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys. Some current and former employees of the company complain that these deaths are more than necessary and are due to Musk's excessive demands, which often lead to haste and mistakes by stressed researchers working under great pressure, as other competing companies, such as Synchron, seem to be making faster progress in the same field of brain-based electronic implants.
Some researchers have left Neuralink, which was founded in 2016 and has large facilities in Texas and California, precisely because of concerns about the way animal studies are done and the bioethical issues they raise.
Musk, who already has major headaches with his expensive acquisition and tumultuous reorganization of Twitter (which has led to mass layoffs and voluntary departures of executives and employees), is rushing to begin human trials of the implant in the next six months and hopes to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for his product.
Source: APE-MPA
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