Image via Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com and Neuralink
Last Friday, Elon Musk showcased the progress of his brain interface project
Neuralink via a live-streamed demonstration using pigs.
This prompted animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to release a statement criticizing Musk for testing his experimental brain chip on animals.
“PETA challenges Elon Musk to behave like a pioneer and implant the Neuralink chip in his own brain rather than exploiting smart, sensitive pigs who didn’t volunteer for surgery,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said a
statement.
During the demonstration, Musk seemed to be affectionate for the animals as he introduced the animal handler, as well as the healthy-looking pigs that were inserted with the Neuralink chip. He also confirmed that the chips were subsequently removed.
However, Newkirk wasn’t pleased with the project, emphasizing that the intelligent creatures should be “left out of pie-in-the-sky projects.”
[via
Futurism, cover image via
Kathy Hutchins / Shutterstock.com and
Neuralink]