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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by TheBronzeRanger@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

Elon Musk says no primates died as a result of Neuralink’s implants. A WIRED investigation now reveals the grisly specifics of their deaths as US authorities have been asked to investigate Musk’s claims.

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[-] ElZoido@kbin.social 245 points 1 year ago

Staff observed that though she was uncomfortable, picking and pulling at her implant until it bled, she would often lie at the foot of her cage and spend time holding hands with her roommate.

That is just incredibly sad. Those poor animals suffering for that megalomaniacs ego.

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[-] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 195 points 1 year ago

Musk first acknowledged the deaths of the macaques on September 10 in a reply to a user on his social networking app X (formerly Twitter). He denied that any of the deaths were “a result of a Neuralink implant” and said the researchers had taken care to select subjects who were already “close to death.” Relatedly, in a presentation last fall Musk claimed that Neuralink’s animal testing was never “exploratory,” but was instead conducted to confirm fully formed scientific hypotheses. “We are extremely careful,” he said.

Public records reviewed by WIRED, and interviews conducted with a former Neuralink employee and a current researcher at the University of California, Davis primate center, paint a wholly different picture of Neuralink’s animal research. The documents include veterinary records, first made public last year, that contain gruesome portrayals of suffering reportedly endured by as many as a dozen of Neuralink’s primate subjects, all of whom needed to be euthanized. These records could serve as the basis for any potential SEC probe into Musk’s comments about Neuralink, which has faced multiple federal investigations as the company moves toward its goal of releasing the first commercially available brain-computer interface for humans.

The letters to the SEC come from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit striving to abolish live animal testing. The group claims that Musk’s comments about the primate deaths were misleading, that he knew them “to be false,” and that investors deserve to hear the truth about the safety, “and thus the marketability,” of Neuralink’s speculative product.

“They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that’s why you should invest,” Ryan Merkley, who leads the Physicians Committee’s research into animal-testing alternatives, tells WIRED. “And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies.”

For example, in an experimental surgery that took place in December 2019, performed to determine the “survivability” of an implant, an internal part of the device “broke off” while being implanted. Overnight, researchers observed the monkey, identified only as “Animal 20” by UC Davis, scratching at the surgical site, which emitted a bloody discharge, and yanking on a connector that eventually dislodged part of the device. A surgery to repair the issue was carried out the following day, yet fungal and bacterial infections took root. Vet records note that neither infection was likely to be cleared, in part because the implant was covering the infected area. The monkey was euthanized on January 6, 2020.

Additional veterinary reports show the condition of a female monkey called “Animal 15” during the months leading up to her death in March 2019. Days after her implant surgery, she began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason; a symptom of pain or infection, the records say. Staff observed that though she was uncomfortable, picking and pulling at her implant until it bled, she would often lie at the foot of her cage and spend time holding hands with her roommate.

Animal 15 began to lose coordination, and staff observed that she would shake uncontrollably when she saw lab workers. Her condition deteriorated for months until the staff finally euthanized her. A necropsy report indicates that she had bleeding in her brain and that the Neuralink implants left parts of her cerebral cortex “focally tattered.”

Yet another monkey, Animal 22, was euthanized in March 2020 after his cranial implant became loose. A necropsy report revealed that two of the screws securing the implant to the skull loosened to the extent that they “could easily be lifted out.” The necropsy for Animal 22 clearly states that “the failure of this implant can be considered purely mechanical and not exacerbated by infection.” If true, this would appear to directly contradict Musk’s statement that no monkeys died as a result of Neuralink’s chips.

[-] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 120 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. On. A. Pike.

That's horror novel levels of disgusting.

[-] phx@lemmy.ca 52 points 1 year ago

Let fucking Musk be the next one to be chipped so he can prove how safe and comfortable it is

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

The way humans treat animals and the natural world in general — scientific and medical experiments, factory farming, ecological destruction, pollution — it's all one planetary scale horror story.

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[-] TurnItOff_OnAgain 56 points 1 year ago

Animal 15 began to lose coordination, and staff observed that she would shake uncontrollably when she saw lab workers

Jesus fucking christ. That isn't losing coordination. That is being terrified of these people for what they did to her.

she would often lie at the foot of her cage and spend time holding hands with her roommate.

She knew she was fucked and was getting comfort from those closest.

I'm getting High Evolutionary from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 vibes here. These animals acted like his experiments.

[-] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

Or the movie was based on real life. Animals aren't as dumb as we pretend. Other mammals are just that: mammals. The same as us. Mammals have the same feelings as us, the same emotions, the same fundamental chemical reactions, the same socialization. We just have big brains and written language to amplify basic mammalian traits.

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[-] MorgoFett@lemmy.world 44 points 1 year ago

Used to work for this asshole. He’s just as much as a hack as Elizabeth Holmes.

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[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 41 points 1 year ago

You know you're a great guy doing an ethical thing when lab animals quiver in terror at the sight of you.

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[-] inspxtr@lemmy.world 100 points 1 year ago

what really confuses me is how the FDA approves this without a few more years of animal testing and protocol refinement.

[-] Fixbeat@lemmy.ml 62 points 1 year ago

Musk gets special treatment because he’s super rich would be my guess.

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[-] Zellith@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago

The people willing to have this implanted do not have brains. Therefore it is safe.

[-] inspxtr@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

lol I know you’re kidding, but there’s implication of those willing to get things implanted. Society seems to run on hype nowadays. Look at AI and how fast people are jumping on board with trying it, sometimes out of FOMO. Not to say there’s no merit, but if that FOMO feeling spreads real quick, without proper guardrails, Musk will eventually get what he wants.

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[-] KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago

He wants Republicans to win so they'll gut regulations.

[-] httpjames@sh.itjust.works 92 points 1 year ago

Animal 15 began to lose coordination, and staff observed that she would shake uncontrollably when she saw lab workers.

These are conscious beings. Imagine being trapped in a lab where the next time you wake up you might not have full motor function?

[-] Asudox@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

That's heartbreaking. Imagine being trapped in a experimentation room with no escape. Everday's just hell.

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[-] bloopernova@programming.dev 70 points 1 year ago

At this point, who trusts musk enough to let him have control of their brain?

[-] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 20 points 1 year ago

It was enough for me to read the first sentence and just not read the rest. It's all a variation on a theme.

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Your mistake is assuming the people who trust Musk are using their brain.

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[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago

This is nightmare fuel. Why is this allowed ?

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 42 points 1 year ago
[-] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 27 points 1 year ago

Yep, I kinda expect this kind of utilitarian villainy from Musk. But, seeing this happen at UC Davis is an eye opening view of just how corrupted by funding schemes US research institutes are becoming.

This is what happens when university leadership positions are filled with nothing but econ and business "educators".

[-] Auli@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 year ago

It's america as a whole though. Everything has is berning pushed to private industry. America can't even launch anything into space without the help of a deranged billionaire. America has fallen so hard.

[-] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it's real unfortunate. I work for a university hospital, who's CEO is always supposed to be a physician. Up until about ten years ago it seemed to help the balance of public good against financial reward. Then we started to see a slew of physicians who went back to school for business management getting hired for upper management.

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 40 points 1 year ago

He is so fucked over this, animal experimentation is incredibly tightly regulated. primates even more so.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago

I'll believe it when I see it. I doubt he'll see consequences over this

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 21 points 1 year ago

We can only hope he pays for this. Or anything else he's done.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

Consequences for the rich in America lol

[-] kitedemon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 year ago

Didn’t they just get FDA approval for human testing on this stuff?

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[-] LavaPlanet@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Unregulated God complex, and sickening leaves of wealth surely that can't become harmful in any way.

[-] A7thStone@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

It's a feature, not a bug.

[-] UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

This is how we create Mojo Jojo on accident

[-] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Wasn't that the explicit goal!?

[-] planish@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 year ago

Unfortunately as far as I know it is pretty standard for monkeys used to test brain interfaces to eventually get infected because of it and have to be put down.

I'm not sure whether the same problems are as common in humans; humans are much less likely to e.g. yank on the implant, especially if the reason they have an implant is to work around some kind of paralysis. And humans are allowed drugs that animals are not.

[-] serpineslair@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

This is messed up. It's like something out of a sci-fi horror film. Have to hope no one is stupid enough to put a computer chip in their brains.

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[-] UsedAndDenied@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

The difference in comments here is between those who show compassion for the suffering of animals - and, by extension, humans - versus those who do not and view this as merely political theater in their unlimited support of Elon.

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[-] jayrhacker@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

“Science cannot move forward without heaps.”

[-] JungleJim@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

Hey everyone I think it's a Futurama quote. Stand down red alert.

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[-] inspxtr@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Not at the cost of humanity. Plus, that statement can be recycled to defend all the horrible inventions and experiments in the past.

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[-] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago

It's like the start of a terrifying science fiction movie where things are about to go horribly, horribly wrong.

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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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