Animals Sacrificed in Musk's 'Speed Race'... US Government Investigates Neuralink Animal Testing

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup led by Elon Musk, is under investigation by the U.S. federal government prosecutors amid allegations that it has been conducting animal experiments hastily, resulting in an unnecessarily high number of animal deaths.

On the 5th (local time), major foreign media outlets reported this citing multiple sources and related documents. Neuralink is currently developing an interface that implants computer chips into the brain to connect with computers, enabling control of various devices solely through human thought. It is during this process that these issues have arisen.

Elon Musk Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Neuralink is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, at the request of federal prosecutors, for several months now. Authorities plan to investigate how researchers treated and experimented on the animals and whether there were any violations of animal welfare laws during this process.

According to related documents, since 2018, more than 1,500 animals have died due to Neuralink’s animal experiments, including over 280 sheep, pigs, and monkeys. Neuralink does not keep precise records separately, so this is an approximate estimate.

The large number of animal deaths in experiments does not necessarily mean that relevant regulations and standards were violated, but Neuralink employees point out that the number of animals sacrificed has become excessively high due to Musk’s pressure to accelerate development. In one study last year, 25 out of 60 pigs died simultaneously after being implanted with devices of incorrect sizes in their heads.

Another employee wrote in a message sent to colleagues earlier this year that in order to meet deadlines, underprepared and overly stressed staff made changes just before device implantation surgeries for experiments, increasing the risk of animal deaths.

Neuralink employees also criticized the practice of rapidly conducting consecutive experiments without resolving issues arising from initial tests, instead of following the traditional method of drawing conclusions from experiments testing one variable at a time before moving on to others.

As the situation unfolded, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal rights organization, demanded a federal investigation, accusing Neuralink of violating the Animal Welfare Act and conducting extremely painful experiments on monkeys. Subsequently, the Northern District of California federal prosecutors referred the case to the USDA inspectors, and a formal investigation has begun.