A recent investigation challenges Elon Musk's claim that no monkeys died due to Neuralink implants, raising concerns about the ethical and safety aspects of the experimental procedures
Elon Musk earlier this month claimed that there had been no instances of monkey deaths due to Neuralink implants. However, a recent report from Wired appears to challenge Musk's claim. Wired has reviewed public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which suggest that macaque subjects involved in Neuralink experiments were euthanized due to a range of complications, such as severe digestive issues, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.
According to Wired, records indicate that a male monkey was euthanized in March 2020 due to a loosened cranial implant. The necropsy results indicated that the implant failure was purely mechanical and not worsened by infection.
Neuralink on Tuesday made an announcement about commencing human trials for people with quadriplegia.
The PCRM, a non-profit organization dedicated to opposing the use of live animals in testing, filed a lawsuit against UC Davis to obtain documents related to the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), a bioresearch facility located at the university where such testing happened. These documents have since been made available on the PCRM's website and were referenced in letters sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. In these letters, the PCRM accused Elon Musk of securities fraud, pointing to the reported $280 million raised by Neuralink from investors for the development of a brain-computer interface.
Wired reported on an experiment from December 2019 detailed in one of the documents. In this experiment, a monkey had to be euthanized because a component of Neuralink's brain implant broke off during the surgical procedure, causing an infection. Another macaque, referred to as Animal 15, exhibited unusual behavior by pressing her head against the floor without any apparent reason in the days following the implantation. Unfortunately, her condition deteriorated steadily thereafter.
In addition to claiming that no monkeys have died due to a Neuralink implant, Elon Musk has stated that the company selected "terminally ill monkeys (already near the end of their lives)" as test subjects in order to "reduce the potential risk to healthy monkeys." Nevertheless, an unnamed former employee, as reported by Wired, contradicts this claim.
Last year, PCRM lodged a formal complaint with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), claiming that Neuralink's actions contravene the Animal Welfare Act. Concurrently, Neuralink finds itself under scrutiny by the United States Department of Transportation, which is investigating allegations of unauthorized transportation of contaminated devices extracted from monkeys' brains.