Tech 24 – Musk’s Neuralink under US investigation for treatment of animals, Reuters reports
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The brain-computer interface company Neuralink, owned by Elon Musk, is under investigation by the US Department of Agriculture for its treatment of animals, Reuters has revealed. FRANCE 24’s tech editor Peter O’Brien tells us more about the allegations.
Last week, Musk announced that his company Neuralink, which is facing stiff competition in creating implants, would begin human clinical trials in six months’ time. But current and former employees interviewed by Reuters said Musk was pushing them to go too fast, and that animals were suffering and dying as a result.
This follows a complaint lodged by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine nonprofit, which claimed that researchers working for Neuralink up until 2020 mutilated monkeys’ brains and left them to suffer and die.
Neuralink responded that while animals had been euthanised, they were not treated inhumanely, and said conditions had improved since the company moved the animals in-house in 2020.
The company has yet to respond to the latest round of allegations published by Reuters, including purported mistreatment and unnecessary deaths in Neuralink’s in-house facilities since 2020.
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