Clearly that Earon Mask's brain implant company 'Neuralink' is being investigated by the government as repeating illegal animal experiments
Elon Musk, a famous entrepreneur who is the founder of electric car maker Tesla and space development company SpaceX, and who also acquired Twitter, is a brain implant company that tries to connect a computer to the cranial nerves. We are launching
Exclusive: Musk's Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-neuralink-faces-federal-probe-employee-backlash-over-animal-tests-2022-12-05/
Report: Elon Musk's brain chip startup Neuralink being investigated for animal welfare violations - Silicon Valley Business Journal
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/12/05/neuralink-under-animal-welfare-investigation.html
Reuters has leaked complaints from inside Neuralink, a brain implant company, that ``animal experiments conducted at the company are giving animals unnecessary suffering and death,'' violating the US Animal Welfare Act. I reported that I am under investigation by the government because I may be doing it.
Neuralink is a company that develops brain implants that help treat paralysis due to nerve paralysis. In 2020, Neuralink announced `` Link '', a chip for brain implants, and appealed that by embedding this chip in the skull, it would be possible to monitor brain activity in real time.
Neuralink CEO Elon Musk announces embedded chip ``Link'' & automatic surgery robot ``V2'' that connects the brain and AI - GIGAZINE
When Mr. Mask announced Link, he appealed that ``Link has already advanced to the stage where clinical trials on humans are possible'', but Neuralink's brain implant technology will conduct clinical trials on humans even at the time of article creation. It hadn't reached the stage, it was just being tested on animals. However, in 2022, Neuralink has been accused of animal abuse by animal welfare groups.
Animal welfare group accuses Elon Musk's brain implant company 'Neuralink' experiment to abuse 23 monkeys-GIGAZINE
Reuters reports, citing a source familiar with Neuralink's internal information, ``The company has been under investigation by the US Department of Agriculture inspector general over the past several months at the request of investigators.'' According to sources, the investigation will focus on whether Neuralink researchers' treatment of animal test subjects violates animal welfare laws.
Reuters, who checked dozens of Neuralink's internal documents and interviewed more than 20 people involved, said, ``The influence of CEO Mask, who is pressuring to accelerate development, is within Neuralink. It is leading to the failure of the experiment.” And it seems that employees are saying that this failed experiment has led to an increase in the number of deaths of subjects.
However, Reuters also reports that 'it was not possible to determine the full extent of the government-led investigation or whether the suspicions of animal testing that employees spoke in interviews were true.' Reuters has requested comments from Mr. Mask and Neuralink executives, but no response has been received at the time of writing. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Inspector General's Office declined to comment.
According to sources confirmed by Reuters, Neuralink has killed about 1,500 animals such as pigs and monkeys, including more than 280 sheep, in animal experiments since 2018. However, sources say that Neuralink does not keep accurate records on the number of animals killed in animal experiments, so this figure is only a rough estimate.
The number of deaths in animal testing does not necessarily indicate Neuralink's violation of law. In fact, the US Animal Welfare Act does not dictate how many animals companies can use in research, giving scientists great latitude over when and how they use them in experiments. . In addition, Neuralink has passed all facility inspections of the US Department of Agriculture. In addition to Neuralink, many companies routinely conduct animal experiments to improve human health care, and animals are euthanized for research purposes after these experiments are completed.
However, Neuralink has said that Neuralink has killed more animals than necessary due to a request from Mask CEO to 'accelerate development'. In addition, Reuters points out that Neuralink has recently conducted four animal experiments in which 86 pigs and two monkeys died due to human error. A former Neuralink employee said, ``More animals were killed due to mistakes in these experiments,'' and the mistakes were due to lack of preparation by experimental staff under pressure from their bosses. There are also indications that there are
Five sources who said they were involved in Neuralink's animal studies told Reuters, 'We're testing one element at a time in our animal studies, and before we move to a phase where we're doing more animal studies, we're going to make sure that we're doing something relevant. When I advocated a traditional approach to drawing conclusions, Neuralink responded by taking the approach of running multiple iterations before revising the test or drawing full conclusions. , more animals participated in the experiment and were killed.'
Another former employee said several years ago that management should experiment more cautiously, saying that 'that approach is not possible given Musk's speed-conscious demands from senior executives.' It seems that he told Reuters that he was answered. In addition, it seems that some people quit the company due to concerns about such animal experiments.
On the other hand, Neuralink's competitors have had more success than the company. Synchron, also a brain implant company, has received FDA approval and started clinical trials in humans from 2021. Synchron has also conducted animal testing, but according to a Reuters investigation, only about 80 sheep died in the company's animal testing.
In addition, Neuralink had just announced that it plans to start the first clinical trial to embed in the human head in the first half of 2023.
Earon Mask's brain implant company 'Neuralink' hopes to embed a chip in the human brain in the first half of 2023-GIGAZINE
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