Elon Musk’s Neuralink Under Federal Investigation
After showing off recent improvements to Neuralink’s system, like the N1 surgical robot that implants the neural links inside the brain or how they can now track neurons that fire that control the limbs of a pig and how they can fire those neurons to move the limbs to different positions on their own.
Elon also demoed a monkey using its mind to control and move a cursor to click and enter letters on a virtual keyboard. The monkey was guided by a yellow square that highlighted the letter or word prediction.
The monkey spelled, “Welcome” and “Can I have snack” in which afterwards a gloved-hand carrying grapes presented itself onscreen.
During this presentation Musk was sharp to point out a video of the monkey crawling down into the chair to start the experiment, stating how important it is for the audience to see that the monkey is enjoying itself and, like, strapped to a chair against its will with a tube jammed down its throat.
But somehow this is not enough for reports that over 1,500 animals, including sheep, monkeys, and pigs, have died since 2018 by the company from surfacing.
The USDA is investigating reports that the death was due to rushed experiments. This comes after receiving a letter about violations from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
We still think the idea of Neuralink is a pretty cool one and the future of the cell phone. Believe it or not, one day it may be uncool and weird not to be connected to the inter-intranet.
If you are thinking about joining Neuralink here is the jobs page.
