Elon Musk acquitted
As quoted by Reuter, USDA officials conducted a “focused” audit in response to a complaint about the company’s handling of animal testing, but was unable to detect any compliance violations. The secretary of the institution, Thomas Vilsack, stated that current facility visits are added to the inspections and that more inspections will be made.
The investigation was initiated by the allegations that Neuralink carried out lethal experiments on 23 monkeys between 2017 and 2020. Claims include that Neuralink rushed animal experiments, causing unnecessary suffering and death. Meanwhile, even though the USDA investigation on Neuralink has been completed, another regulatory arm of the agency, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), continues its own investigation.
On the other hand, Neuralink is preparing to test the brain implant device on humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently accepted Neuralink’s request to begin testing the brain implant device in humans. The FDA had not previously approved any company in this industry to switch to human trials.