Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink has come under US federal radar for violating aspects of animal welfare as its staff has complained of hasty animal testing that is causing useless suffering and deaths.
Neuralink is under process of creating a brain implant aimed to help disabled people to walk and treat other neurological ailments.
The federal probe, not made public earlier, restarted in the past few months by the US Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General after a federal prosecutor requested for it, according to the sources.
The ongoing probe is regarding violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which sees how researchers treat and test some animals.
Neuralink’s tests accelerate employees’ discontent
According to a review by Reuters of dozens of Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees, the investigation has been launched at a time when employee discontent regarding Neuralink’s animal testing is growing, including complaints that Musk’s pressure to expedite development has led to botched experiments.
According to the complaints of the employees, unsuccessful tests used to be repeated which led to escalation in the animals being tested and killed.
A spokesperson for the USDA inspector general declined to comment. US regulations don’t specify how many animals companies can use for research, and they give significant leeway to scientists to determine when and how to use animals in experiments.
Neuralink has passed all USDA inspections of its facilities, regulatory filings show.
According to the records seen by Reuters, Neuralink has killed almost 1,500 animals that included more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys after conducting experiments since 2018.
The employees, both current and former, said the number of deaths is higher than was necessary as Musk’s demands to speed up research were growing.
According to current and former employees, Musk has worked hard to speed up Neuralink’s development, which is primarily dependent on animal research.
Three sources who have repeatedly overheard the remark claim that Mr. Musk has instructed staff members to picture having a bomb strapped to their heads in an effort to motivate them to work more quickly.
The three people attributed the mistakes to a lack of preparation by a testing staff working in a pressure-cooker environment.
