Current Events > Elon Musk's Neuralink allegedly subjected monkeys to 'extreme suffering'

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://nypost.com/2022/02/10/elon-musks-neuralink-allegedly-subjected-monkeys-to-extreme-suffering/

Elon Musks brain-chip company Neuralink is facing a legal challenge from an animal rights group that has accused the company of subjecting monkeys to extreme suffering during years of gruesome experiments.

Neuralinks brain chips which Musk claims will one day make humans hyper-intelligent and let paralyzed people walk again were implanted in monkeys brains during a series of tests at the University of California, Davis from 2017 to 2020, according to a compliant from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed with the the US Department of Agriculture on Thursday.

In one example, a monkey was allegedly found missing some of its fingers and toes possibly from self-mutilation or some other unspecified trauma. The monkey was later killed during a terminal procedure, the group said in a copy of the complaint shared with The Post.

In another case, a monkey had holes drilled in its skull and electrodes implanted into its brain, then allegedly developed a bloody skin infection and had to be euthanized, according to the complaint.

In a third instance, a female macaque monkey had electrodes implanted into its brain, then was overcome with vomiting, retching and gasping. Days later, researchers wrote that the animal appeared to collapse from exhaustion/fatigue and was subsequently euthanized. An autopsy then showed the monkey had suffered from a brain hemorrhage, according to the report.

The experiments involved 23 monkeys in all. At least 15 of them died or were euthanized by 2020, according to the group, which based the report on records released through Californias open records law.

Pretty much every single monkey that had had implants put in their head suffered from pretty debilitating health effects, Jeremy Beckham, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicines research advocacy director, told The Post. They were, frankly, maiming and killing the animals.

The macabre report comes as Neuralink plans to begin its first human tests. Musk said in December that he wants to start human trials for the devices in 2022 and the company posted a job listing for a clinical trial director this January.

The group behind the report, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, advocates for veganism and alternatives to animal testing positions that have sometimes put the group at odds with the American Medical Association. It has also previously received funding from controversial animal rights group PETA, The Guardian reported.

The group doesnt currently have any relationship with PETA but sometimes works on overlapping issues, Beckham said.
The organization is accusing Neuralink and UC Davis of nine violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act a federal measure designed to reduce suffering during animal experiments.

Many, if not all, of the monkeys experienced extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal care and the highly invasive experimental head implants during the experiments, which were performed in pursuit of developing what Neuralink and Elon Musk have publicly described as a brain-machine interface, the group wrote in its complaint to the USDA.

These highly invasive implants and their associated hardware, which are inserted in the brain after drilling holes in the animals skulls, have produced recurring infections in the animals, significantly compromising their health, as well as the integrity of the research.

The group is also suing UC Davis in an attempt to make them release more photos, videos and information about the monkeys under Californias public records laws.

The alleged abuses come in stark contrast to publicly shared materials from Neuralink. In a video posted on YouTube last April, the company showed a healthy and happy-seeming monkey playing the video game Pong with its brain.

A UC Davis spokesperson told The Post that its work with Neuralink ended in 2020 and that the universitys Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee had thoroughly reviewed and approved its project with Neuralink.

Elon Musk has gone too far this time.

Dang....UC Davis is wild. Pepper spraying students, rewarding the cop who did it, and now brutally torturing monkeys.

Elon is a POS but that's something we already knew

yikes

But he's a genius guys and totally not unethical at all!

What a bad press day for Elon. Torturing monkeys and having a racist work environment.

I mean, if you put anything in a monkeys brain you are probably going to euthanize and dissect it later.

I dunno what people thought happened to these animals.

Having shit drilled into your brain will probably do that.

I knew I didn't want to read about what happened, then I started reading about what happened, and immediately asked myself why did I start reading that?

Anyway Elon Musk can get fucked

Alteres posted...

I mean, if you put anything in a monkeys brain you are probably going to euthanize and dissect it later.

I dunno what people thought happened to these animals.

One might argue the whole concept was, you know, absurd

Which Musk fan boys are signing up for these trials?

Since it's clearly safe and he did no wrong, Musk can demonstrate by having the procedures done on himself.

so far on the plate for Musk this year

-Racist work environments

-Animal abuses

-Satellite failures

-Traffic making his tunnel project obsolete nonsense

is there anything else lmao

Im sure hes got labs with hundreds of rows of suffering animals

Wait until you guys see what the not Elon scientist do too

Alteres posted...

I mean, if you put anything in a monkeys brain you are probably going to euthanize and dissect it later.

I dunno what people thought happened to these animals.

...and if you're remotely ethical, when you see... well ideally even just one, but certianly multiple, having these kind of outcomes, you stop the fucking experiments.

Animal testing gave us most medical things we use today. Without it there's no minimally invasive surgery or most drugs to treat anything

Not sure what to say about this

You want to advance

Or you want to pet the monkey

choose

Wait... when he showed the Neurallink, he had a pig on the stage. Don't tell me the pig was fake!

This is the guy in a robot suit all over again.

NightingaleMD posted...

Animal testing gave us most medical things we use today. Without it there's no minimally invasive surgery or most drugs to treat anything

Not sure what to say about this

You want to advance

Or you want to pet the monkey

choose

Let's stop drilling into monkeys' brains. These experiments are horrific.

Pepys Monster posted...

Let's stop drilling into monkeys' brains. These experiments are horrific.

I really thought we were past the point where we still did horrible experiments on animals.

Monke didn't do anything wrong

Soon: Elon Musk to announce he's got a new organic bio therapy that cures cancer.

If it's for proper scientific advancement, I don't really care that much about the suffering of a few animals. If it's for some eternal fratboy's pet project that'll end up devolving into a laptop backpack or something equally stupid, then it's probably not proper scientific advancement.

Nemu posted...

If it's for proper scientific advancement, I don't really care that much about the suffering of a few animals. If it's for some eternal fratboy's pet project that'll end up devolving into a laptop backpack or something equally stupid, then it's probably not proper scientific advancement.

See, that's the thing: It's the latter. It's techbro nonsense where they start with the conclusion having no premise

Nemu posted...

If it's for proper scientific advancement, I don't really care that much about the suffering of a few animals. If it's for some eternal fratboy's pet project that'll end up devolving into a laptop backpack or something equally stupid, then it's probably not proper scientific advancement.

If we want scientific advancement, we can get people who volunteer for it then. Not torture or kill other species of animals to benefit our own.

Pepys Monster posted...

Let's stop drilling into monkeys' brains. These experiments are horrific.

You must not want neurosugery to exist, then.

How do you think the field came into play? If you have a brain tumor, will you just accept death in an alternate reality where animal testing is banned?

EmbraceOfDeath posted...

If we want scientific advancement, we can get people who volunteer for it then. Not torture or kill other species of animals to benefit our own.

For some things, you need to work out a ton of different shit before we make it to even being slightly safe to begin human testing. Suffering should be to a minimum, but I'd sacrifice ten thousand monkeys to extreme suffering and pain to let a single paralyzed child walk again. Though that would be under the assumption that it's viable tech. Lambaste this shit all you want because Musk is a putz.

Nemu posted...

I don't really care that much about the suffering of a few animals.

Then go ahead and volunteer.

NightingaleMD posted...

You must not want neurosugery to exist, then.

How do you think the field came into play? If you have a brain tumor, will you just accept death in an alternate reality where animal testing is banned?

Yes.

As much as I dislike Musk, animal rights groups are full of shit.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Yeah, I mean, assuming you want any scientific progress at all.

Animal rights groups notorously and repeatedly misrepresent animal research to make it seem frivilous and exceedingly cruel. It's bullshit, and they've done serious damage to the progress of science.

COVxy posted...

Yeah, I mean, assuming you want any scientific progress at all.

Animal rights groups notorously and repeatedly misrepresent animal research to make it seem frivilous and exceedingly cruel. It's bullshit, and they've done serious damage to the progress of science.

Would you watch these SAW-like experiments, then sleep soundly at night?

Pepys Monster posted...

Would you watch these SAW-like experiments, then sleep soundly at night?

I have, in fact, observed and assisted in monkey neurosurgeries and done many surgeries on mice.

Nemu posted...

For some things, you need to work out a ton of different shit before we make it to even being slightly safe to begin human testing. Suffering should be to a minimum, but I'd sacrifice ten thousand monkeys to extreme suffering and pain to let a single paralyzed child walk again. Though that would be under the assumption that it's viable tech. Lambaste this shit all you want because Musk is a putz.

If it's not safe for human testing, it shouldn't be considered safe for animal testing.

Seems more of a hit piece by a clearly biased organization than an objective assessment of the research methods. The university's institutional review board would have been informed of the research protocols and objectives and granted approval for the research so it's not like it's a unilaterally executed vanity project that happened only because Musk said so (unless you want to accuse the university of being corrupt and allowing the research to happen because money).

Sucks that we don't have a computer simulation that perfectly models an animal's physiology and we have to test it out on them but the alternatives are to just not invent any new medical devices or only test them on people (where even the most charitable perspective is exploiting poor people desperate for a check even it means a good chance of death or disability)

TendoDRM posted...

If it's not safe for human testing, it shouldn't be considered safe for animal testing.

There is no such thing as "safe for animal testing" beyond simply making sure you have a viable model and you're not wasting time. You test things on animals to get a feel for how it will react with humans. Nobody is saying that we should put animals through unnecessary suffering. I'm sure there have been pointlessly cruel experiments on animals and animals that have been mistreated even when it's not necessary to the study. But that doesn't mean there isn't massive benefit when you can correlate their suffering to actual advancement.

Time to defeat your inner Musk and go vegan then.

What a product! It's already giving results. Just not good ones.

COVxy posted...

I have, in fact, observed and assisted in monkey neurosurgeries and done many surgeries on mice.

You shouldn't be proud of being pro animal torture.

RenescoStCewl posted...

You shouldn't be proud of being pro animal torture.

And most people itt are proud of doing worse to animals simply because they think eating them is fun.

RenescoStCewl posted...

You shouldn't be proud of being pro animal torture.

Seems offensive lol.

Whats the racist work environment involving Musk?

Its articles like this that seriously make me consider going vegan.

reading biomedical research publications on pre-human trials for medications, it's common practice for researchers to subject animals to extreme dosages for long periods of time as well as euthanizing survivors afterward for dissection and related analysis. this is usually done in a number of test subjects simultaneously so as to increase statistical confidence in the findings.

it's by no means "good," but i suppose it's preferable to doing this kind of early-stage experimentation on humans. it's regrettable that there are no ethical alternatives to animal experimentation right now.

Krojen posted...

And most people itt are proud of doing worse to animals simply because they think eating them is fun.

I'm vegan.

Nemu posted...

I'm sure there have been pointlessly cruel experiments on animals and animals that have been mistreated even when it's not necessary to the study

Given Elon Musk's reputation, this would likely fall under pointless cruel injury. Just because someone has a lot of money and a platform and promises some fanciful thing doesn't mean they can actually do it

Antifar posted...

which Musk claims will one day make humans hyper-intelligent and let paralyzed people walk again

Ah yes, we're gonna solve a spinal cord injury with a brain chip. People are still getting conned this easily huh

Fuck Elon Musk.