Hundreds of grisly photographs of monkeys from Elon Musk’s Neuralink WON’T be made public, as brain-implant firm denies abuse allegations from animal rights group
- A trove of 371 images, some of them allegedly grisly, depicting monkeys experimented on my Elon Musk’s Neuralink, may not see the light of day
- An animal rights group claims that UC Davis, which hosted the monkey experiments, is in possession of the pictures but won’t release them
- The university is trying to hide from taxpayers that it partnered with Musk to conduct experiments in which animals suffered and died, the group claims
- Musk plans to link the brain with a micron-sized device that works with ‘neural-lace’ technology to implant tiny electrodes that could read a person’s mind
A cache of grisly photographs of monkeys reportedly injured or killed in experiments with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant technology may not be publicly released – amid a legal battle to push a California university to do so – as the brain implant company denies animal abuse allegations.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) advocacy group says that it learned the University of California, Davis has 371 photos of the monkeys that were experimented upon inside the school’s veterinary laboratory facilities.
The prestigious California university is in possession of hundreds of images depicting, among other things, ‘necropsies of animals killed’ in the experiments, according to PCRM, which has also filed a complaint against Neuralink.
Musk’s plan is to link the human brain with a micron-sized device that works with ‘neural-lace’ technology to implant tiny electrodes that could one day read a person’s mind. The technology will initially be used to help people suffering from degenerative brain disorders such as ALS, but it could have wider uses as well.
A cache of grisly photographs of monkeys reportedly injured or killed in experiments with Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implant technology may not be publicly released – amid a legal battle that aims to push a California university to do so
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) advocacy group says that it learned the University of California, Davis has 371 photos of the monkeys that were experimented upon inside the school’s veterinary laboratory facilities
Musk’s plan is to link the human brain with a micron-sized device that works with ‘neural-lace’ technology to implant tiny electrodes that could one day read a person’s mind. The technology will initially be used to help people suffering from degenerative brain disorders such as ALS, but it could have wider uses as well
Elon Musk’s Neuralink is working to link the human brain with a machine interface by creating micron-sized devices.
Neuralink was registered in California as a ‘medical research’ company in July 2016, and Musk has funded the company mostly by himself.
It will work on what Musk calls the ‘neural lace’ technology, implanting tiny brain electrodes that may one day upload and download thoughts.
The technology will initially be used to help people suffering from severe degenerative brain disorders such as ALS, but it could have wider uses in years to come.
‘UC Davis thinks the public is too stupid to know what they’re looking at,’ Physicians Committee research director Ryan Merkley says.
‘But it’s clear the university is simply trying to hide from taxpayers the fact that it partnered with Elon Musk to conduct experiments in which animals suffered and died,’ he says in a press release.
When contacted by DailyMail.com for comment, a spokesperson for Neuralink referred to a company blog post detailing its commitment to animal welfare.
That blog post says all the work that took place at UC Davis was approved by the school’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a federal mandate, and that Neuralink in 2020 built a 6,000-square-foot vivarium for farm animals and rhesus macaques that is ‘staffed with caretakers who are passionate about animal well-being, which is a central tenet of Neuralink’s philosophy.’
‘Notably, Neuralink has never received a citation from the USDA inspections of our facilities and animal care program,’ the company says.
‘We recently applied for and received accreditation by the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International, a voluntary international agency accrediting excellence in animal care.’
The blog post goes on detail a number of ways the company says it is exceeding industry standards for animal care, including in the areas of housing, diet, care, data collection and activity.
Neuralink has called PCRM a group that opposes any use of animals in scientific research. On its website, PCRM talks about a ‘transition from animal use to human-relevant’ research methods, replacing animals witih ‘simulators,’ as well as ‘championing methods to replace animal testing.’
Earlier this year, Neuralink admitted that several rhesus macaques monkeys it used to test its brain technology had been euthanized after malfunctions or infections. That came in the wake of PCRM’s complaint against Neuralink that was filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and alleged several counts of animal abuse between 2017 and 2020.
UC Davis has already released more than 600 pages of records that showed monkeys suffering from chronic infections, paralysis and seizures, according to the animal rights organization.
But the animal rights group says the school still has two large caches of photographs, totaling 317, showing monkeys involved in the experiments – including some that were allegedly killed.
A spokesperson for UC Davis told DailyMail.com that they fully complied with the California Public Records Act in responding to the request from PCRM and referred us to its previous statement.
UC Davis ended its relationship with Neuralink in 2020 and says it reviewed and approved all research protocols during the experiments. According to PCRM, Musk’s brain tech firm paid UC Davis $1.4 million to use its facilities between 2017 and 2020.
Musk has said there will be Neuralink update ‘show and tell’ event on Oct. 31.
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