In recent days, Neuralink has begun seeking volunteers to begin clinical trials of its brain-computer interface. However, controversy has erupted, and one group has sent a letter to the SEC requesting an investigation into Musk's claims that no monkeys have died from the brain chip.
The nonprofit organization Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), in fact, filed a complaint against Neuralink's behavior and in a letter published by WIRED called for an investigation into Musk for securities fraud due to a statement published in X on September 10, in which the SpaceX and Tesla CEO claimed that "no monkeys have died as a result of Neuralink brain implants."
According to PCRM, the entrepreneur's claims are false. PCRM claims to have obtained access to documents from the University of California, where the experiments were conducted, which show that at least a dozen monkeys implanted with the chips suffered serious health problems, including infections and brain swelling, before being euthanized. Other side effects reported in the report include paralysis, seizures, impaired or loss of coordination and balance, and depression.
According to PCRM, the brain chip implantation procedure takes an hour and is performed through two coin-sized holes in the head. One of the monkeys, a 6-year-old female rhesus macaque known as "Animal 15," reportedly attempted to remove the implant after the procedure, while others began to lose balance and coordination due to the "loss of pressure in the head." In other cases, hallucinations were reported: one monkey held the hand of and groomed its imaginary friend.
The group also disputed the claim that the monkey tests were conducted on animals "near death." PCRM emphasized in the letter that "the monkeys' health records show that, although several animals suffered physical trauma and were used in experiments at UC Davis, there is no evidence that they were 'near death,' as Musk claimed," since rhesus macaques often live to about 25 years in captivity, while the monkeys who died during the research were 7,25 years old. An anonymous former Neuralink employee also disputed Musk's claim that the monkeys were near death.
Neuralink has yet to comment, and Musk tweeted that "the first human patient will soon receive a Neuralink device, which has the potential to restore full-body movement. In the long term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in reducing the risk to civilization from AI by improving the bandwidth from human to AI (and human to human) by several orders of magnitude. Imagine if Stephen Hawking had this."
Recall that Neuralink received FDA approval for human trials a few months ago.
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