JAKARTA – Neuralink, Elon Musk's company to develop neural interfaces, is getting serious accusations. Animal rights groups in the US have sued Neuralink on charges of having, tortured and mutilated monkeys.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, announced on Thursday, February 10 that it filed two actions against Neuralink and the University of California, Davis, for their treatment of monkeys in a neural interface design.
"UC Davis may have handed over a publicly funded facility to a billionaire, but that doesn't mean it can circumvent transparency requirements and violate federal animal welfare laws," research advocacy coordinator Jeremy Beckham said in a press statement cited by washingtonexaminer.com. .
"Documents reveal that the ape's brain was mutilated in a poor experiment and left to suffer to death. It is no longer a mystery why Elon Musk and the university would want to hide photos and videos of this horrific abuse from the public," Beckham said.
The first complaint, filed with the Department of Agriculture on charges of the two entities violating the Animal Welfare Act, asks to seek an investigation into the university for alleged misconduct.
A second charge was filed as a public records lawsuit in Yolo City Superior Court in an attempt to force UC Davis to release additional information about its partnership with Neuralink, including images, videos and monkey identification numbers.
Neuralink signed a deal with UC Davis because of the university's excellence as a primate research facility in 2017, and they are working together through 2020, a university spokesperson told the Washington Examiner.
During that time, Neuralink has implanted 23 primates, 15 of whom died or were euthanized between 2017 and 2020. This data is known, based on a veterinary paper from the university. Seven of the remaining monkeys were transferred to Neuralink custody, and the fate of the eighth monkey is unclear due to record issues.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said they believed that UC Davis had withheld photographic and video evidence of their request for information, withholding important details about the ape's fate in the process, prompting action to be taken in Yolo City Superior Court.
The lawsuit is an amended version of an original lawsuit filed by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in May last year seeking initial records, which the advocacy group did not receive until October.
Details about the condition of the monkeys appear in the report. In one case, the primate had a neural interface attached via a substance called "bioglue" that destroyed parts of its brain, the group claims based on records.
"The substance has not been approved for use by the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, but it was applied to two apes that killed them in the process," Beckham told the Washington Examiner.
The UC Davis research protocol was "thoroughly reviewed" and approved by the school committee. A UC Davis spokesperson also added that UC Davis is "complying with the California Public Records Act in response to their request" and that all information has been fully provided.
While some researchers claim that animals using neural interfaces appear healthy. However, Beckham believes the footage was selectively edited to emphasize the company's operations and hopes to see additional details revealed about UC Davis and Neuralink's relationship.
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