Elon Musk’s brain chip startup, Neuralink, has successfully raised $280 million in a funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, just months after securing approval for its first in-human clinical trial. However, the company’s success is overshadowed by allegations of rushed and botched animal experiments. Regardless of its animal mishaps, most Americans think getting a brain chip is a bad idea.
Reuters reports that just months after receiving approval for its first in-human clinical study, Elon Musk’s brain chip business, Neuralink, has successfully raised $280 million in a funding round led by conservative billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. The company’s success, however, has been marred by charges of rushed and bungled animal tests.
Conservative billionaire Peter Thiel (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We’re extremely excited about this next chapter at Neuralink,” the company said in a post on Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Despite the excitement surrounding the funding, Neuralink has faced criticism and scrutiny over its animal testing procedures. Employees at Neuralink said last year that Musk was pressuring them to expedite development resulting in botched surgery on monkeys, pigs, and sheep, resulting in more animal deaths than necessary. These animal experiments were conducted to produce data to support the company’s application for human trials.
As Breitbart News previously reported:
This has resulted in the need to repeat failed tests, leading to an increase in the number of animals being tested and killed. The documents reviewed by Reuters include audio recordings, emails, messages, presentations, and reports that have not previously been made public.
According to records reviewed by Reuters and sources with direct knowledge of the company’s operations, Neuralink has killed approximately 1,500 animals, including pigs, sheep, and monkeys, following experiments since 2018. The sources that spoke to Reuters say that this is a rough estimate as the company does not maintain precise records of the number of animals tested and killed. In addition to the animals mentioned, Neuralink has also conducted research using rats and mice. Breitbart News has previously reported that Musk faced criticism for causing “extreme suffering” in test animals.
The allegations have led to calls for investigation from U.S. lawmakers. After revelations appeared regarding potential financial conflicts on the panel, they requested regulators to look into whether the makeup of a panel regulating animal research at Neuralink contributed to botched and rushed studies.
Breitbart News reported last year that a poll showed only 13 percent of Americans think Neuralink brain implants would be good for society:
The vast majority of U.S. adults surveyed by Pew Research, around 78 percent, stated that they would not personally want a brain chip implant even if they were readily available. Only 13 percent of those that responded to the survey said that they thought the types of implants developed by Nueralink and other biotech companies seem like a good idea for society.
56 percent of those polled by Pew stated that they believe technology like Neuralink would be actively bad for society. A second majority of 57 percent worried that the widespread use of brain interfaces could potentially widen the gap between high and low-income Americans. Less than a quarter of all surveyed believe that even if the tech was widely available it would actually improve human decision-making.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan