The US Department of Agriculture began investigating Neuralink’s actions a few months ago at the request of the federal prosecutor, reports news agency Reuters.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s the medical technology company Neuralink has come under fire from the federal authorities due to potential violations related to animal welfare, reports news agency Reuters.
According to Reuter, the company’s employees have filed internal complaints in the company about rushing animal experiments, which has caused unnecessary suffering and deaths of animals.
According to Reuters, the matter is clear from the documents seen by the news agency and from sources who are aware of the investigation and the company’s actions.
Neuralink is developing a brain implant, which is hoped to help with neurological ailments and restore the movement ability of paralyzed people.
According to Reuters, the US Department of Agriculture began the investigation a few months ago at the request of federal prosecutors. According to a Reuters source, the investigation focuses on violations of animal welfare legislation. The law regulates how laboratory animals are treated.
According to Reuters, the investigation has begun at the same time as some of the company’s employees have expressed their dissatisfaction with the implementation of animal experiments in the company.
Musk is said to have demanded to hurry up the development work
Complaints have been made, among other things, about CEO Musk’s pressure to rush development work, as a result of which tests have been botched. Because of this, animal experiments have had to be done again, which has increased the number and mortality of experimental animals used, the employees say.
According to former and current employees, the number of animals that died in the experiments is higher than what would be necessary precisely because Musk has demanded to speed up the development work in the company.
Musk and other Neuralink executives have yet to respond to Reuters requests for comment.
According to Reuters, it has not yet received the scope of the official investigation. It is also not yet clear whether the investigation is specifically related to the same aspects of animal testing that the employees have been dissatisfied with.
The regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture do not specify an exact number for how many animals companies are allowed to use in their research. According to Reuters, Neuralink has so far passed all the legally required inspections that the Ministry of Agriculture has conducted at the company’s premises.