Elon Musk is accused of the agonizing death of monkeys with his brain chips while he searches for human volunteers

Neuralink, the controversial brain implant company founded by Elon Musk, has just received the green light to begin installing its chips in humans, while the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington-based nonprofit organization , has denounced the magnate before the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the agonizing death of twelve primates due to these implants.

Neuralink aimed to enable people with tetraplegia due to spinal cord injuries, or ALS patients, to be able to control devices with their minds.. However, in December last year, Reuters reported that the company was under federal investigation for alleged animal welfare violations.. Specifically, about 1,500 sheep, pigs and monkeys, after around twenty workers and former workers accused Neuralink of accelerating investigations, producing “unnecessary suffering and deaths.”

All this would have happened while Neuralink published in April 2021 a video of Pager, a macaque who had had the implant for six months, and who played two video games using his mind, one of putting a ping pong ball in a glass, and another of tennis.

Elon Musk did not respond to these accusations until December 10. “No monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant”. And he also said that they were experimenting on monkeys that were already “on the brink of death.”. However, according to public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee, twelve perfectly healthy macaques were euthanized after suffering various complications from the implant, including “bloody diarrhea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema.”. The rhesus-type macaques used usually live about 25 years in captivity, some up to 40, but when sacrificed by Neuralink they barely exceeded seven years on average.

“Given that the invasiveness of Neuralink's device poses serious health risks to patients, Musk is misleading investors about the safety and marketability of the device,” the Physicians Committee denounces.. The company has already raised more than $280 million from outside investors.

Public records from the University of California, Davis, where Neuralink conducted experiments on monkeys between 2017 and 2020, reveal that the implantation of the company's device weakened the monkeys' health until they were euthanized.. “The animals experienced chronic infections, paralysis, encephalitis, loss of coordination and balance, and depression,” they report.

The health workers' SEC complaint details the stories of four monkeys, including “Animal 11,” a Rhesus female.. In December 2018, Neuralink employees drilled two holes the size of a penny into Animal 11's skull, implanted electrodes in its brain, and screwed two titanium plates into its skull.. Almost immediately, UC Davis staff noticed that the implants were infected and the “skin was eroded.”. She ended up suffering from a staph infection that lasted three months, until she was euthanized.. Animals 15, 20 and 22 were also euthanized due to infections after detachments, sometimes from trying to remove the implant.

“It seems obvious to everyone but Elon Musk that Neuralink's device is unsafe and dangerous,” says Ryan Merkley, director of Investigative Advocacy at the Physicians Committee.. “He is now deliberately misleading investors and the public by blatantly lying about the experiments”. That is why they ask that he stop the animal experiments that he continues to carry out in facilities in California and Texas.

However, this Tuesday the company published on its networks: “We are pleased to announce that we have received approval from the independent institutional review board and our first hospital to begin recruitment for our first clinical trial in humans.”

The US Department of Food and Drugs. UU. approved in May 2023 that the company could begin clinical trials in humans, and now Musk is looking for patients at least 22 years old with caregivers, and who suffer from ALS or tetraplegia due to spinal cord injuries.. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking had this,” Musk boasted on social media.

In its complaint, the Committee believes that the company has violated nine animal welfare laws, including the obligation of researchers to minimize pain and distress, the need to conduct daily observations of animals, and the absence of an attending veterinarian. advise on the use of anesthesia.