Musk's new conundrum

Elon Musk's startup Neuralink mainly develops brain implant chips for "brain-computer interfaces." A few days ago, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal protection organization in the United States, said that it would file a legal action against the company. The group has long opposed medical trials on animals, and is unhappy with Neuralink because the company and the university of California, Davis, which conducted the collaborative research, allegedly abused medical experimental monkeys.

PCRM has previously said it will launch an administrative lawsuit against Neuralink and the University of California, Davis, on Feb. 10 against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates experimental animals under the Animal Welfare Act. Davis has assisted Neuralink in using primates for brain computing studies. PCRM wants the USDA to investigate several incidents of alleged monkey abuse by Neuralink and UC Davis staff. The complaint, citing records of laboratory animal care held at Davis, said Neuralink's experimental monkeys were traumatized by chronic infections caused by surgery, which caused "extreme distress."

PCRM said it wants the Department of Agriculture to punish Neuralink and UC Davis if the violations are true.

A UC Davis spokesperson noted that the university's partnership with Neuralink ended in 2020. It added that Davis' Commission for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals "thoroughly reviewed and approved" the research proposal for the Neuralink collaboration. "We do our best to provide the best possible care for laboratory animals, animal research has always been strictly regulated, and UC Davis has fully complied with all applicable laws and Department of Agriculture regulations," the spokesperson said.

PCRM has always been publicly opposed to animal testing. Since 2005, it has filed charges against a number of academic institutions, primarily for the purpose of obtaining public records of animal experiments. As one of the targets of its allegations, Neuralink is unusual and extremely compelling.

Due to the high profile of its founders, the company's research has attracted huge public attention, and public opinion is overwhelming, both positive and negative. (This is the Elon Musk effect.) Last April, the company posted a video on YouTube showing a monkey with a Neuralink chip in his brain playing a video game called Pong with his brain, which has been viewed nearly 6 million times. Last year, Musk said he hopes to begin human experiments with Neuralink's brain chip by the end of 2022.

Last May, PCRM filed a separate lawsuit against UC Davis in California Superior Court, alleging that the university's refusal to provide animal care records related to the Neuralink study violated the California Public Records Act. Recently, Davis submitted its required records to PCRM.

The Primate Research Institute at the University of California, Davis, has always had a prominent reputation. In 2017, Neuralink signed an agreement with the university that would provide researchers to support the company's research into brain-computer chip technology. Since then, Neuralink has conducted experimental studies with at least 23 monkeys at the University of California, Davis, performing surgical implants.

Jeremy Beckham, PCRM's research advocacy coordinator, told Fortune that PCRM believes that the study it conducted resulted in the death or euthanasia of 15 of the 23 monkeys, based on the university's records. When Neuralink's research agreement with UC Davis ended in 2020, the school transferred the remaining seven monkeys to Neuralink. (Beckham said it was unclear what happened to the last monkey because the record abruptly averted in November 2019.) )

Although PCRM has received relevant records from UC Davis, the organization also claims that Davis still has reservations. The school should also have videos, photographs and identification numbers of the monkeys to provide more evidence that they were abused.

Based on the claims filed last May, PCRM has made changes to plan a new lawsuit in California on Feb. 10 to require Davis to submit materials that have not yet been made public.

In response to PCRM's allegations that UC Davis withheld information, a spokesperson for the university objected: "We have fully complied with the California Public Records Act and have responded to PCRM's requests. ”

Beckham said a record submitted by the University of California, Davis, detailed a monkey that "completely collapsed to the ground due to excessive fatigue." The material shows that the caregiver of the monkey said that at that time, video recordings had been used to monitor its health.

"To be honest, we know that browsing these videos and photos can be uncomfortable. But we want to be able to get video footage that further reveals to people what's really going on in Elon Musk's injection lab," Beckham said.

Beckham admits that PCRM opposes all forms of animal testing for medical purposes. If other academic institutions that study brain computing are investigated, although they are not as high-profile and well-known as Neuralink, "the same problems will be found." He added that PCRM believes that UC Davis, as a public institution, has an obligation to expose the true face of its collaborative research with Neuralink.

Driven by the private money of billionaires, researchers at the University of California, Davis, hugged back and forth. I think this raises a deep set of ethical questions about how these projects were reviewed and approved," he added.

Multiple brain computing experts told Fortune that the animals involved in the experiment appear to be healthy so far in terms of information publicly released by Neuralink. For example, some well-informed sources point out that the monkey appears energetic and well-organized in the highly played "Monkey Pong" video.

However, Beckham said the medical records currently obtained by PCRM "do not seem to match what people are doing in the videos that Neuralink and its PR department selectively posted." (Fortune Chinese Network)

Translator: Transn

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