Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: Elon Musk's firm mutilated monkeys

On Nov. 30, Elon Musk is scheduled to host a Show and Tell event with employees from his brain chip company Neuralink, an annual report where Musk showcases his latest achievements. So, at the first show in 2020, Neuralink showed an implant implanted in the brain of a pig, and in 2021, a monkey posed with the implant, which died a few months after the operation, according to the Daily Mail.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an organization of more than 17,000 physicians, filed a lawsuit in February against the University of California, Davis, whose laboratories Neuralink employees used in 2017-2020 for their animal experiments. The lawsuit alleges that the test animals "carried infections from implanted brain electrodes" and that the experimental substance known as BioGlue "killed the monkeys by destroying their brains." For renting the premises, the university received $1.4 million from Musk's company.

Neuralink confirmed that he was conducting tests at the university. "As part of this work, two animals were euthanized at the scheduled time to collect important histological data, and six animals were euthanized on the advice of UC Davis veterinary staff," the company blog says. As for the university, he sent the Committee laboratory notes detailing eight experiments involving monkeys implanted with electrodes. Each monkey is numbered.

For example, animal 21 is a 7-year-old macaque that underwent a "survival electrode insertion" procedure that involved implanting electrodes into the brain. Two days after the operation, the monkey "vomited repeatedly, choked, vomited, and had little to no interaction with the environment/observers." A day later, the animal looked completely emaciated and was euthanized shortly thereafter. The autopsy revealed that the deterioration in health was caused by a glue called BioGlue, which was used to fill holes in the skull and caused bleeding in the brain.

The animal is an 11-year-old macaque, the implant "became chronically infected" shortly after the implantation procedure. The monkey had "a bloody head ... dried blood around the base of the cranial implant." The animal was euthanized "during the terminal procedure".

The animal, a 15-year-old macaque, began picking at its implant "almost immediately after" recovering from surgery. As in other cases, the implantation site turned out to be infected. Four days later, the animal was observed to be "trembling and scratching". "Over the next three months, the animal was given intermittent antibiotics as well as probiotics to try and manage recurring infections, poor appetite, and loose stools." After the monkey was euthanized, an autopsy showed internal bleeding, "remnants of electrode filaments" and "focal damage to the cerebral cortex".

Less is known about the fate of animal 10. According to the records, she was sent for further experimentation to a secret Neuralink facility in California, although she had mental and physical problems, after which her traces were lost.

The goal of Neuralink's experiments with monkeys is to create a microscopic chip that will link the human brain with a machine interface. Musk calls it "neural lace" technology. It is planned that the technology will be used primarily to help people suffering from severe degenerative brain diseases such as ALS, but then it will be used more widely.

A committee of doctors turned to Neuralink for clarification after it became known that there were hundreds of shocking images of monkeys maimed or killed during experiments. The committee filed a motion demanding that the University of California, Davis release the protocols of the experiments, photographs and video footage.