The story of Neuralink’s Monkeys actually dying

Neuralink vs. WIRED: Musk’s comment about the primate deaths and prosthetics for people with quadriplegia

Neuralink has created a patient registry for people who are interested in learning whether they may qualify for the study. In a brochure on its website, Neuralink says it is looking for participants who have quadriplegia, or paralysis in all four limbs, due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and are at least 22 years old. The study will involve at least nine at- home and in-person clinic visits over the course of 18 months. Neuralink anticipates the study will take six years to complete.

Neuralink did not give a place where the trial will be held, and company representatives did not immediately respond to WIRED’s email request for an interview.

Neuralink’s coin-sized implant is not visible when implanted, according to the company. It records neural activity by using 64 threads with a total thickness of thin than a human hair.

In the study, a part of the brain that controls movement intention will be placed in the robot’s body. The implant will record brain signals and transmit them to an app that interprets movement intentions.

At a Neuralink show and tell last November, Musk talked about the possible use cases for the implant: to provide control of tech devices for people with paralysis, and to restore vision. But there was no mention of a vision prosthetic in today’s release.

According to the documents, the male monkey was euthanized in March 2020 after his cranial implant became loose, with the necropsy showing that the failure of this implant can be said to be purely mechanical.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is trying to abolish live animal testing. The group claims that Musk’s comments about the primate deaths were misleading, that he knew them “to be false,” and that investors deserve to hear the truth about the safety, “and thus the marketability,” of Neuralink’s speculative product.

Shown a copy of Musk’s remarks on X about Neuralink’s animal subjects being “close to death already,” a former Neuralink employee alleges to WIRED the claim is “ridiculous” if not a “straight fabrication.” “We had these monkeys for a year or so before any surgery was performed,” they say. The ex-employee, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, says up to a year’s worth of behavioral training was necessary for the program, a time frame that would exempt subjects already close to death’s door.

Fresh allegations of potential securities fraud have been leveled at Elon Musk over statements he recently made regarding the deaths of primates used for research at Neuralink, his biotech startup. Letters sent this afternoon to top officials at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by a medical ethics group call on the agency to investigate Musk’s claims that monkeys who died during trials at the company were terminally ill and did not die as a result of Neuralink implants. They claim, based on veterinary records, that complications with the implant procedures led to their deaths.

“They are claiming they are going to put a safe device on the market, and that’s why you should invest,” Ryan Merkley, who leads the Physicians Committee’s research into animal-testing alternatives, tells WIRED. “And we see his lie as a way to whitewash what happened in these exploratory studies.”

Neuralink Workplace: Questions on the SEC’s Discussions on Musk’s Claims in e+ e- Annihilation

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The SEC declined WIRED’s request to comment on the Physicians Committee’s letters. Neuralink didn’t respond to questions about Musk’s claims or the physicians committee’s allegations