You've heard of someone else. Have you heard of animals dying? Today's godawful story includes the possibility that animals may be dying because of Musk.
Neuralink is being investigated by the U.S. government because it may have violated animal welfare laws. Neuralink's labs are said to be suffering and dying more than necessary due to Musk's push to speed up development.
Neuralink wants to develop a brain implant that will help people who are paralyzed or have neurological issues. Neuralink does animal testing in the course of its research, such as implanting chips on pigs' spine. Test subjects are usually euthanized after an experiment is completed.
Musk's rushed timelines have resulted in increased pressure and avoidable mistakes as Neuralink's kill count has been much higher than it needs to be. This has resulted in failed experiments, repeated tests, and deaths.
Many of these animals' deaths seem to have not been painless. Neuralink's experiments have resulted in needless suffering and questionable data. Surgeons using the wrong surgical glue, implanting Neuralink's device on the wrong vertebrae, and implanting devices that were the wrong size have all been alleged to have taken place.
More than 1,500 animals have been killed by Neuralink since the beginning of the year.
The number of animal deaths isn't an indication of what Neuralink has done. Large-scale animal testing leads to a lot of deaths. Neuralink is said to treat animals fairly when compared to other labs, until they are actually killed.
Neuralink's test animals have suffered and died at a larger scale than required due to Musk's demands that researchers speed up their work, according to internal documents and interviews with over 20 former and current employees.
The animal welfare act is the focus of the investigation into Neuralink. It's a good bet that it concerned the allegations made by the employees it spoke to. Neuralink has more potential animal welfare issues if the investigation is unrelated to the allegations.
Musk said last week that Neuralink could begin human trials in six months if the FDA approves. It would be best to take this declaration with a pillar of salt. Musk has a history of saying unrealistically optimistic timelines and failing to deliver.
In 2016 Musk said that his company would demonstrate a self-driven trip across the US. This didn't occur. Musk said that he would launch two cargo missions to Mars. This didn't occur. Human testing for Neuralink will start in 2020 and then in 2022. This didn't happen as well.
If Neuralink starts human trials within a year, it will be shocking. Even if it does, you'll want to think a lot before you go under the knife to have a chip in your brain.
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