Musk's Neuralink Confirms Monkeys Died In Project But Nixes Cruelty Claims

Elon Musk's implant company Neuralink, which aims to enable brains to connect and communicate with computers, has acknowledged that monkeys died as part of its testing procedures, but denies allegations of animal cruelty, Hannah Ryan reported for CNN Business.

Photo Insert: The Pioneer Building in San Francisco's Mission District, housing the offices of Neuralink and OpenAI

In a blog post on its website, ​Neuralink addressed the "recent articles" that have "raised questions around Neuralink's use of research animals at the University of California, Davis Primate Center" (UC Davis) and said that "all novel medical devices and treatments must be tested in animals before they can be ethically trialed in humans."

Macaque monkeys have been used in testing by Neuralink as the company has been developing Bluetooth-enabled implantable chips-- inserted into the monkey's brains –which it says can communicate with computers via a small receiver.

Jeremy Beckham, research advocacy coordinator with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), said that documents used by the committee in its letter to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) "reveal that monkeys had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die."

PCRM called for an investigation into what it called "apparent egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act related to the treatment of monkeys used in invasive brain experiments."

The document says the experiments were carried out pursuant to contractual agreements between UC Davis and Neuralink. In the letter, which spans more than 700 pages, the Physicians Committee said records it obtained for the 23 monkeys used in the experiments reflect a "pattern of extreme suffering and staff negligence."

The committee said that the letter to the USDA is based on nearly 600 pages of what it calls "disturbing" documents released after the committee filed an initial public records lawsuit in 2021.

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