The US Department of Transportation announced that it is investigating the “Neuralink” company for implanting chips in the brains of billionaire Elon Musk.
The ministry indicated that it is investigating the possible illegal movement of dangerous pathogens, according to what Russia Today reported, citing the American NBC News network, reports Al-Rai daily.
A spokesman for the department said it launched its investigation after receiving a letter from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an animal welfare advocacy group, alerting them to the records it had obtained on the matter.
In its letter addressed to the US Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, the committee indicated that it had obtained emails and other documents, revealing “unsafe packaging and movement of implants removed from the brains of monkeys in violation of federal law, expressing fears that these implants may carry infectious diseases.”
The letter stated that the records obtained by the medical committee, “show cases of pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus aureus and herpes B virus, which may have been transmitted without appropriate containment measures,” according to the committee’s proposal.
A spokesman for the US Department of Transportation confirmed that it took the allegations of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “very seriously.”
The billionaire, Elon Musk, said in December 2022 that he expects the wireless brain chip, developed by his company, Neuralink, to start clinical trials on humans within 6 months.
In the same month, Neuralink was the subject of a federal investigation into possible animal welfare violations, and that some of its employees had filed internal complaints about expediting experiments, causing suffering and death.