U.S. Regulators Rejected Elon Musk’s Bid To Test Brain Chips In Humans, Citing Safety Risks
March 2, 2023
U.S. regulators rejected a bid by Elon Musk’s Neuralink to implant microchips in human brains, according to a news report on Thursday. Neuralink hopes to make language obsolete through brain-to-brain communication.
Reuters reported that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected an application by Neuralink to test a brain implant in human brains. The news agency cited seven “current and former employees” of Neuralink.
Musk founded the neurotechnology company Neuralink in 2016 and the company has been working on brain implants, or brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can be used to treat neurological conditions like blindness and paralysis.
The company has been running tests on animals such as monkeys and pigs, according to earlier news reports.
Last month, CNBC reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation is investigating Neuralink for allegedly transporting hardware contaminated from animal testing in an unsafe way.
The animal welfare group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation alleging that equipment that had been infected with pathogens like herpes and staphylococcus bacteria during testing on primates, and was improperly transported and not properly stored.
According to Reuters, the FDA listed a number of concerns it has with Neuralink’s implant plans, which include safety issues with the lithium battery that powers the implant, the possibility that the implant’s parts could migrate to other parts of the human body, and concerns that the device may damage the brain when removed.
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