The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) is looking into accusations that Elon Musk’s brain implant business may have transported pathogen-laced equipment taken from monkeys without authorization after they appeared today. In a letter to the USDOT today, an animal welfare organization expressed concerns and urged the agency to look into Musk’s business Neuralink “for violation of the federal hazardous material transportation law and fine it accordingly.”
The goal of Neuralink is to create a system that can operate a computer when it is inserted into the brain. However, Neuralink is already under federal investigation as a result of prior claims of animal cruelty and hurried research that resulted in needless deaths.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a non-profit group that opposes the use of animals in medical research, sent the letter. It’s the same charity that claimed Neuralink had mistreated the animals used to test its technology in violation of the Animal Welfare Act last year.
The organization claims in a letter seen by Reuters that Neuralink’s improper management of implants taken out of monkeys creates “a serious and ongoing public health risk.” For instance, the implants may have been infected with herpes B virus, antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus, and other infections. Employees of Neuralink “appear to have packaged and transported” those contaminated products “in an unsafe way,” perhaps due to a lack of legally necessary safety training.
We take these allegations very seriously.
We are conducting an investigation to ensure that Neuralink is in full compliance with federal regulations and keeping their workers and the public safe from potentially dangerous pathogens.
USDOT via The Verge
Neuralink implanted its gadget in a monkey in 2019, and the animal was later “able to control a computer with its brain,” as Musk said. Since then, Neuralink has shown footage of monkeys utilizing the implants in their skulls to spell words and seem to play video games. Pigs have also received implants from Neuralink.
Neuralink is far behind in its attempts to test the devices in people, despite those tests. Originally scheduled for 2020, that objective has recently been moved to maybe this year. The pressure on researchers to complete their job more quickly, even at the risk of endangering the animals they use in their studies, has allegedly increased as a result of missed deadlines. Now it seems that rushing may also put individuals in danger.
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