Neuralink Under Federal Investigation

Neuralink, a medical device company started and owned by Elon Musk, is under federal investigation. According to Reuters, the company is under investigation for “potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths.”

With Neuralink, Musk was developing a brain implant that reportedly will “help paralyzed people walk again and cure other neurological ailments.” The device was recently being looked into by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General for development approval, as well as because many were worried that the “Animal Welfare Act” was being violated. Musk demonstrated the use of the device in a video during a showcase, where a chimp used the device to control a computer. Reuters reported that Neuralink has “killed about 1,500 animals, including more than 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, following experiments since 2018.” Although the deaths do not show explicitly that Neuralink is violating the Animal Welfare Act, employees at Neuralink did express that the “number of animal deaths is higher than it needs to be for reasons related to Musk’s demands to speed research.”