Tag: Neuralink

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Elon Musk’s brain implant company is facing federal probe on animal testing

Neuralink, a medical device company co-founded by Elon Musk, is under U.S. federal investigation for alleged animal-welfare violations.

According to Reuters, staff have complained the company is rushing animal testing leading to avoidable suffering and tests. Neuralink is creating a brain implant to treat neurological conditions and uses animals for its experiments.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA)  Inspector General’s probe focuses on suspected violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which examines how some animals are treated while being tested.

Internal documents and interviews with 20 current and former employees reveal several complaints, including pressure from CEO Musk to speed up development, leading to mismanaged experiments, Reuters reports.

The full scope of the federal investigation isn’t clear, but the company has killed at least 1,500 animals since 2018. While animal deaths don’t mean the company is violating practices, employees are saying the number of deaths is higher than need be due to rushed experiments.

Image credit: Shutterstock 

Source: Reuters

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Pending FDA approval, Neuralink human trials to begin within six months

At its Fall 2022 Show and Tell event that aired yesterday, November 30th, Elon Musk claimed that his neurotechnology company Neuralink expects to start human clinical trials within the next six months.

The company is developing a wireless brain chip interface that, once implanted, aims to help those physically disabled to communicate and move with more ease, with the overarching focus on helping users control a computer with nothing more than their brain activity.

This comes two years after the company installed brain-machine interface implants in pigs, and over a year and a half after the company showed off a video of a monkey playing Pong with its mind.

During the event, Musk said that the company has already submitted most of the necessary paperwork to initiate human trials to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the goal to receive approval and begin trials in 2023. “”We want to be extremely careful and certain that it will work well before putting a  device into a human but we’ve submitted I think most of our paperwork to the FDA and we think probably in about six months we should be able to have our first Neuralink in a human,” said Musk.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time talks of Neuralink human trials are doing the rounds. Musk first hoped for human trials to begin in 2020. Subsequently, in February 2021, Musk said that Neuralink is awaiting FDA approval to initiate human trials, and that trials should begin at the end of the year (2021).

Now, the earliest the trials can start isn’t until 2023.

The first human trials will focus on two major human functions, vision and movement. The chip will aim to restore vision and re-enable the movement of certain muscles in people. “Even if someone has never had vision ever, like they were born blind, we believe we can still restore vision,” said Musk during the event. Further, “As miraculous as that may sound, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord.”

Find the complete Fall 2022 Show and Tell event below:

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: Neuralink

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Elon Musk to provide Neuralink progress update on Halloween

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is planning to show off the progress Neuralink has made on October 31st, which happens to be Halloween.

Musk tweeted about the progress update on August 22nd. This comes roughly two years after the company installed brain-machine interface implants in pigs, and a little over a year after the company showed off a video of a monkey playing Pong with its mind. We’re not entirely sure what Musk has up his sleeve this time, and beating something like a monkey playing Pong with its mind is going to be tough.

Back in February 2021, Musk said that Neuralink is awaiting FDA approval to initiate human trials. Back then, he said that if things go smoothly, the trials should begin at the end of the year, but that did not end up happening. It could be that Musk is finally ready to talk about or announce the initial human trials.

This comes only two days after Musk approached brain chip startup and Neuralink rival Synchron about a potential investment. The Stentrode is Synchron’s first operational device, and it is designed for patients with paralysis to control digital devices through thought.

It is currently unknown if the deal involves collaboration between the two companies or if Musk aims to extend his acquisition spree.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Source: @elonmusk, Via: CNET

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink brain implants moving towards testing on humans

Neuralink, one of Elon Musk’s more outlandish companies, aims to implant a chip into the human brain to unlock sci-fi-like abilities and to help combat brain chemistry-based issues like depression.

So far, we’ve seen the company implant its chip into rats and monkeys, but a new job posting for a ‘clinical trial director’ suggests that the company is looking to step up its testing.

The job is situated in Fremont, California, and the posting says that this hire will lead and direct the team responsible for fielding regulatory interaction and developing a clinical trial procedure for the company.

The full job application can be found here. It features pretty hefty wording like “Understanding of Class III implantable neuromodulation devices,” likely keeping regular people out of the running for the role.

Hiring this director is the first step towards actual human trials with Neuralink tech. However, it will likely be several years before we see one of these chips implanted in an actual human brain.

Beyond this job, Neuralink also has roles listed for animal care, brain specialists and engineering jobs related to the device.

Source: Neuralink Via: Bloomberg