Elon Musk's Brain Chip Company Neuralink Denies Animal Cruelty Claims
Reported to have violated Animal Welfare Act regulations.
Elon Musk‘s brain chip company Neuralink has found itself in hot waters after claims that its researchers have abused monkeys when testing its products.
The complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) by the Physicians Committee of Responsible Medicine (PCRM) which have stated that the Neuralink research has caused its test subjects to undergo “extreme suffering” as they “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die.” The complaint focuses on a partnership between Neuralink and the University of California, Davis between 2017 and 2020 when researchers implanted a device around the size of a quarter into the skull of its monkey test subjects. PCRM obtained health records and documents that revealed that the monkeys suffered from “extreme psychological distress” caused by the “crude surgeries.” The substance used in the chips was also found to affect the psychological part of the animal causing anxiety, poor appetite and even self-mutilating behavior.
In a recent statement to defend itself from such claims, Neuralink said that all its research animal subjects were “respected and honored by our team.” The company also called the allegations “misleading” and also claimed that Nerualink “did and continues to meet federally mandated standards.” Neuralink denies all claims and is certain that its practices do not harm its test subjects. Take a look at Nerualink’s full statement below.
Animals at Neuralink are respected and honored by our team. Without proper context, information from medical records and study data can be misleading. In this blog post, we want to provide an accurate statement of Neuralink’s commitment to animal welfare. https://t.co/Lc9P3URorF
— Neuralink (@neuralink) February 14, 2022
In other tech news, Meta has to pay $90 million USD to settle a 2012 data privacy lawsuit.
