Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink is defending itself against claims that its researchers abused monkeys in the testing of its products.
Neuralink – which hopes to create a revolutionary interface that would allow humans to control devices with their brains – said in a statement on Monday that its research animals were “respected and honored by our team”. The company was responding to allegations that the animals were tortured and left to die in horrific experiments at its facilities.
In a lengthy complaint filed with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) said the research caused “extreme suffering” in its test subjects, who “had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and were left to suffer and die”. PCRM is a non-profit advocacy organization that promotes a plant-based diet and alternatives to animal testing.
The complaint targets a partnership between Neuralink and the University of California, Davis that was carried out between 2017 and 2020, in which researchers implanted a device “approximately the size of a quarter” into the skull of macaque monkey test subjects.
PCRM obtained hundreds of pages of health records, necropsy reports and other documents related to the $1.4m partnership through California’s open records laws. It said the documents reveal the monkeys suffered “extreme psychological distress” from the “crude surgeries”.
In the complaint, PCRM said Neuralink used a substance known as “BioGlue” that destroyed parts of the monkeys’ brains. It described animals exhibiting substantial psychological effects from the experiments, including anxiety, vomiting, poor appetite, hair loss and self-mutilating behavior including removing their own fingers.
Neuralink called the data cited in the complaint “misleading”, saying in a blogpost it “did and continues to meet federally mandated standards”. After the UC Davis partnership came to an end, Neuralink moved its work to an in-house facility.
It responded directly to allegations that more than a dozen monkeys died after Neuralink procedures, stating that some of these were “terminal procedures” – where live test subjects are euthanized “humanely” following surgery.
Musk has previously stated that Neuralink’s brain chip technology could have major implications for people with disabilities, tweeting it would “let a paralyzed person tweet faster than a person using their thumbs on a smartphone”, for example.
Neuralink in 2021 published a video of a monkey appearing to control a computer with its mind. The release sparked controversy, with many noting that typically such videos are published in scientific journals and subject to peer review, allowing for more oversight and accountability.
PCRM said in its complaint that Neuralink has violated Animal Welfare Act regulations and has requested both UC Davis and Neuralink be given the “maximum civil penalty available per violation”. The USDA did not immediately respond to request for comment.