Enlarge / Pager, a nine-year-old macaque, plays with his Neuralink MindPong.
Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company Neuralink is under investigation by the US Department of Agriculture over possible animal welfare violations as current and former employees allege the company abused animals in slapdash research, leading to “hack-job” operations spurred on by Musk’s hasty timelines.
That’s all according to an exclusive investigation released by Portal late Monday, which reviewed internal Neuralink documents and records and interviewed over 20 current and former Neuralink employees.
According to Portal, the USDA inspector general has launched an investigation into Neuralink in recent months at the request of a federal prosecutor. The investigation focuses on potential violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of animals involved in research and other activities and is enforced by the USDA. Portal was unable to determine the full scope of the investigation. The USDA inspector general declined to comment on Reuter’s investigation. Regulatory filings show that Neuralink has passed previous USDA inspections.
However, the probe’s revelation came as several current and former Neuralink employees accused the company of abusing animals. Accusations ranged from sloppy research that resulted in more animals being euthanized than necessary, to “hack-job” operations that caused animals unnecessary pain and suffering before they were euthanized.
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In one case, in 2021, 25 out of 60 pigs used in a study had the wrong size devices surgically implanted in their heads. It was a coincidence that internal documents and people familiar with the matter could have been avoided if researchers had been given the right amount of time to prepare for the experiment.
In two other incidents, Neuralink researchers accidentally implanted a device on the wrong vertebrae of two pigs in two separate surgeries, which could have been avoided if the researchers had simply counted the vertebrae before beginning the surgeries. The fact that this happened twice reportedly frustrated other researchers.
According to internal documents, Neuralink veterinarian Sam Baker advised killing one of the pigs to end its suffering. “Due to the slim chance of a full recovery … and her current poor mental health, it was decided that euthanasia was the only appropriate course of action,” Baker wrote to colleagues a day after the operation. Portal noted that Baker added a broken heart emoji to the message.
Portal also identified four experiments involving a total of 86 pigs that were spoiled by human error. The errors resulted in experiments yielding less valuable research and having to be repeated, requiring the use of even more animals. Three people speaking to Portal attributed the errors to the researchers working in a “pressure cooker environment”.