2023-09-25 17:41:09
The biotechnology company Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk, is under public scrutiny after the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) raised accusations of animal abuse related to the deaths of 15 monkeys that participated in clinical trials of the project. .
These accusations have been brought to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and are expected to initiate an investigation against the company of the CEO of the social network X.
Neuralink’s project, called PRIME (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface), which seeks to develop a brain chip capable of connecting to devices, has been in the center of public attention due to its ambitious mission to merge technology with the human brain. However, revelations about the primates’ deaths have led to questions about their ethics in conducting tests.
The reports describe experiments on rhesus macaque monkeys during the period from 2017 to 2020 by the technology company founded by Musk. These experiments were intended to test brain chip implants, but according to documents revealed by Wired magazine, a series of serious complications were found in the implantation of electrodes in the brains of these primates.
Veterinary records describe the suffering apparently experienced by up to a dozen Neuralink primates. Documents released for the first time last year indicate that some monkeys had to be euthanized.
Reported complications include symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis and cerebral edema, that is, a “swelling of the brain.” Elon Musk had previously denied claims that Neuralink’s monkey test subjects died as a result of the brain implants, indicating that Neuralink had conducted the trials on primates that were terminally ill.
However, a researcher at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), who remained anonymous to Wired, addressed the health of the primates. “They were quite young monkeys,” he noted. “It’s hard to imagine that these monkeys, which were not adults, were terminal for any reason.”
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These animal experiments revealed safety concerns due to the invasiveness of the implant and raise questions about whether Neuralink is adequately addressing the risks associated with its technology.
Recently, it was learned that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Neuralink to develop tests of these devices in humans, against which the PCRM spoke out. “It is important to remember that such FDA approval is not an absolution of Neuralink’s well-documented history of animal cruelty and sloppy scientific studies,” the committee said.
“Musk needs to stop his obsession with putting a device in our heads,” said Ryan Merkley, director of the Physicians Committee investigation. “If he cared about patients’ health, he would invest in a noninvasive brain-computer interface,” Merkley said.
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