[imagesource: YouTube / Neuralink]

That’s Pager up top, the nine-year-old macaque monkey that rose to fame after Elon Musk released a YouTube video of him playing a video game using only his mind.

The video has received close to six million views – a great PR shot for Musk’s brain hacking company, Neuralink.

The reason the monkey can play MindPong is thanks to a Neuralink microchip implanted on the brain, something that Musk hopes to test on humans by the end of this year.

Neuralink and Elon have spoken about ‘hacking’ the human brain for some time now, aiming to help those with disabilities, as well as help us develop “symbiosis” with artificial intelligence somewhere down the line.

It is hard to distinguish if I am screaming with all the fibre of my being because this is seriously alarming or if it’s just new, unknown, and pioneering.

Only time will tell, but considering the problems that Neuralink and Elon are up against right now, it is probably more alarming than anything else.

Back to the monkeys. Pager, it turns out, seems to be one of few monkeys that made it out alive during Neuralink’s animal testing phase.

Neuralink is now facing potential legal action over allegations of animal abuse, per The Daily Beast:

An animal rights advocacy group is urging the U.S. government to cite Elon Musk’s brain technology startup, Neuralink, and the University of California-Davis, over allegations that the organizations may have committed “egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act” while testing brain-implant devices on macaque monkeys.

The animal rights advocacy group is the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a nonprofit “dedicated to saving and improving human and animal lives through plant-based diets and ethical and effective scientific research”.

The University of California-Davis helped Neuralink test its technology on its monkeys during a research partnership that ended in 2020.

The PCRM wants to put forth a formal complaint with the Department of Agriculture (USDA), per Fortune:

The medical group wants the USDA, which regulates animal research under the Animal Welfare Act, to investigate several instances of alleged mistreatment of monkeys by both Neuralink and UC Davis personnel.

That alleged animal mistreatment resulted in chronic infections caused by surgeries, psychological distress, and “extreme suffering,” according to the complaint, which cites animal care records maintained by the university.

The complaint asks the USDA to penalize both Neuralink and UC Davis if the alleged violations are corroborated.

PCRM got their hands on 600 pages of documents detailing how at least 23 macaques were used in research at UC Davis in the “Neuralink-funded project”. It’s reported that “many, if not all of the monkeys experienced extreme suffering as a result of inadequate animal care and the highly invasive experimental head implants”.

Trigger warning, things are about to get graphic:

Some of the animals, the group claims, received as many as 10 crainiomties, were strapped into chairs for up to five hours per day, or “underwent terminal (fatal) procedures.”

At least one monkey was euthanized after “the area around the monkey’s head implant became infected,” the complaint alleged.

Another macaque’s health also allegedly deteriorated after it received an implant. After it too was euthanized, a necropsy found signs of “brain hemorrhage” and “acute esophageal ulcers…likely due to vomiting.”

PCRM believes that 15 of the 23 monkeys died or were euthanised as a result of the research.

Musk, in response to these allegations, said:

“Neuralink goes to extreme lengths to care for our animals. We don’t ‘fund’ UC Davis – that is a state institution. Obviously,” he wrote in an email to The Daily Beast.

He added that “truth and ‘The Daily Beast’ are not well-acquainted.”

Later, when provided with proof that money was transferred between the two organisations, Musk changed his tack:

“We don’t do any research work at UC Davis”, [he said] asserting that the university just provided the monkeys, which Neuralink took “extremely good care of “.

The PCRM is after further evidence that they believe the organisations are covering up and which will show the full extent of the alleged animal abuse.

At the end of the day, Neuralink might just be slapped with a penalty bill, something that the company will likely chalk up to the cost of doing business.

[sources:dailybeast&fortune]