A legal complaint alleges 15 of 23 monkeys had to be euthanised
Elon Musk's brain-chip company is facing a legal challenge from an animal rights group that has accused it of subjecting monkeys to "extreme suffering" with one primate resorting to self-mutilation.
Neuralink's chips - which Musk hopes will one day make humans hyper-intelligent and help paralysed people walk again - were implanted in monkeys' brains during a series of tests at the University of California, Davis, from 2017-2020, according to a complaint this week filed with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
https://twitter.com/PCRM/status/1491819250461327360
The experiments involved 23 monkeys and at least 15 died or were euthanised, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) who made the complaint.
In one alleged incident, according to the PCRM, a monkey was found missing some of its fingers and toes “possibly from self-mutilation or some other unspecified trauma.”
According to a copy of the complaint seen by the
New York Post, the monkey was later killed during a "terminal procedure".
In another case, the newspaper reported, a monkey had to be euthanised after having holes drilled in its skull and electrodes implanted into its brain. The primate was said to have developed a skin infection.
In a third instance, a female macaque had electrodes implanted into its brain, then was overcome with vomiting, retching, and gasping. Researchers,
The Post said, later noted that the animal “appeared to collapse from exhaustion/fatigue”. It was subsequently euthanised.
“Pretty much every single monkey that had had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects,” PCRM advocacy director, Jeremy Beckham, told
The Post.
“They were, frankly, maiming and killing the animals.”
The Post noted that the complaint comes as Neuralink plans to begin its first human tests, something Musk hinted at in December. The company, which bills itself as making 'breakthrough technology for the brain', posted a job listing for a clinical trial director last month.
The PCRM is accusing Neuralink and UC Davis of nine violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
“Many, if not all, of the monkeys experienced extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal care and the highly invasive experimental head implants during the experiments, which were performed in pursuit of developing what Neuralink and Elon Musk have publicly described as a ‘brain-machine interface,’” the group wrote in its complaint to the USDA.
“These highly invasive implants and their associated hardware, which are inserted in the brain after drilling holes in the animals’ skulls, have produced recurring infections in the animals, significantly compromising their health, as well as the integrity of the research.”
The group is also suing UC Davis in an attempt to make them release more photos, videos, and information about the monkeys under California’s public records laws,
The Post reported.
A UC Davis spokesperson told the newspaper that its work with Neuralink ended in 2020 and that the university’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee had “thoroughly reviewed and approved” its project with Neuralink.”
Neuralink has not commented on the complaint.
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