Elon Musk’s attempt to implant microchips into human brains has been rejected by US medical regulators over concerns about the safety of the technology.
Mr Musk’s Neuralink business, which is hoping to insert tiny chips into people’s skulls to treat conditions such as paralysis and blindness, was denied initial permission for clinical trials last year.
US medical regulators were said to have “dozens” of concerns over the risks posed by the device, Reuters reported. Concerns include fears that tiny electrodes could get lodged in other parts of the brain, which could impair cognitive function or rupture blood vessels.
Neuralink’s chips are designed to be threaded into the brain using tiny filaments and harness artificial intelligence technology to pick up brain activity using a so-called “brain computer interface”.
The chips have been tested on several monkeys and pigs, and used to show off “mind reading” experiments by Mr Musk.
These included demonstrations of several macaque monkeys with Neuralink chips playing computer games such as pong or typing on a keyboard using their minds.
However, Neuralink is under pressure from animal rights activists, who have claimed that Mr Musk’s testing has led to the deaths of hundreds of sheep, pigs and monkeys. Neuralink admitted in February that several animals involved in its experiments had been euthanised.
The company said: “Two animals were euthanised at planned end dates. Six animals were euthanised at the medical advice of veterinary staff”. The animals were killed due to device failure, infections and “surgical complications”.
The US Federal Drug Administration rejected Neuralink’s application to hold clinical trials involving humans last year, Reuters reported. US government agencies are also investigating Neuralink’s treatment of animals during its experiments, Reuters previously reported.
Last November Mr Musk predicted the company would secure permission to begin its trials this Spring. The company, founded in 2016, has repeatedly missed Mr Musk’s goals to start human trials.
Getting rejected at a first attempt is not unusual for a medical device company and many medical devices take many years before gaining approval for testing on humans.
One of Neuralink’s main rivals, Synchron, has received the blessing of US regulators to begin clinical trials. The company uses a device similar to a stent that is inserted into the blood vessels near the brain to pick up signals.
