Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface firm Neuralink is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Transportation for allegedly packaging and transporting contaminated {hardware} in an unsafe method, a DOT spokesperson confirmed to CNBC.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Thursday, the animal-welfare group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine mentioned it obtained public data that recommend Neuralink might have mishandled gadgets carrying infectious pathogens that posed dangers to human well being in 2019.
The gadgets had been faraway from the brains of nonhuman primates and should have been contaminated with viruses like Herpes B and antibiotic-resistant micro organism like Staphylococcus and Klebsiella, based on the letter. PCRM claimed the supplies weren’t correctly contained or transported, presumably as a result of Neuralink staff had not acquired correct security coaching.
A DOT spokesperson advised CNBC it’s “standard practice” to analyze alleged violations of hazardous supplies transportation laws. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a part of the DOT, is conducting a “standard investigation to ensure compliance and the public safety of workers and the public” primarily based on the data it acquired from PCRM, the spokesperson mentioned.
Representatives from Neuralink didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Neuralink is one among many corporations within the rising brain-computer interface, or BCI, trade. A BCI is a system that deciphers mind indicators and interprets them into instructions for exterior applied sciences, permitting sufferers to maneuver cursors, kind and even entry sensible residence gadgets utilizing solely their minds. Several corporations have efficiently created gadgets with these capabilities.
Musk, who can also be CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, co-founded Neuralink in 2016 with a bunch of scientists and engineers. The firm is creating a BCI that’s designed to be inserted straight into the mind tissue, and whereas it’s not testing its gadget in people but, Musk has mentioned he hopes to take action this yr.
The public data obtained by PCRM, which had been reviewed by CNBC, embody emails exchanged between Neuralink and the University of California, Davis. The college partnered with Neuralink between 2017 and 2020 to assist the corporate conduct experiments on primates.
In one change in March of 2019, a UC Davis staffer, whose identify is redacted, wrote in an e mail that {hardware} had been dealt with incorrectly, and the transportation of hazardous supplies wanted to be carried out by a skilled hazardous materials handler.
The staffer wrote that if Neuralink staff had not accomplished the mandatory coaching, UC Davis personnel had been “always happy” to package deal and ship supplies.
“Since the hardware components of the explanted neural device are not sealed and it was not disinfected prior to leaving the Primate Center, this presents a hazard for anyone potentially coming in contact with the device,” the UC Davis staffer mentioned within the e mail. “Simply labeling it ‘hazardous’ doesn’t account for the risk of potentially contracting Herpes B.”
In one other occasion in April of 2019, a UC Davis staffer, whose identify is redacted, wrote in an e mail that three explanted gadgets had arrived in an “open box with no secondary container.” The staffer famous that the uncontained, monkey-contaminated {hardware} put members of the Primate Center in danger.
“This is an exposure to anyone coming in contact with the contaminated explanted hardware and we are making a big deal about this because we are concerned for human safety,” the staffer mentioned within the e mail.
PCRM obtained these data from UC Davis by a public data request. Since Neuralink is a non-public firm, it’s not topic to public data legal guidelines. Representatives from UC Davis didn’t reply to requests for remark.
PCRM opposes using animal testing in medical analysis, and the group has raised issues about Neuralink earlier than. In February 2022, the group filed a grievance with the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that Neuralink had violated the Animal Welfare Act throughout its partnership with UC Davis. The grievance was referred to the USDA Inspector General, who has allegedly launched a federal probe into the corporate, based on a Reuters report.
The advocacy group additionally requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December to analyze Neuralink for presumably violating good laboratory practices.
Representatives from the USDA and FDA didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Ryan Merkley, director of analysis advocacy at PCRM, mentioned the newest investigation by the DOT suggests Neuralink has been “sloppy in a whole new way,” he advised CNBC. He mentioned there is no such thing as a proof that anybody was contaminated due to publicity to the {hardware}, however that the involved tone of UC Davis personnel within the emails “reflects the seriousness of this potential pathogen leak.”
“This is a whole other thing that obviously affects not only the animals involved, but the people working at Neuralink, the people working at UC Davis and everyone they came in contact with,” he mentioned.
Source: www.cnbc.com