Elon Musk’s brain implant startup Neuralink Corp. forced an employee to work with monkeys carrying the herpes B virus in conditions in which the animals scratched her bare skin, according to a complaint filed Friday in California state court.
Employee Lindsey Short said that after she moved to the company’s Fremont, California, facility in August 2022, she faced “a work environment filled with blame, shame and impossible deadlines.” She said she was later fired after telling her bosses that she was pregnant.
Short sued the company for harassment, wrongful termination and gender discrimination, among other things.
Neuralink did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The startup is in the early stages of clinical trials of its device, which aims to restore function to paralyzed patients. Arizona resident Noland Arbaugh recently underwent surgery and became… first human patient implant the device. A quadriplegic, Arbo can now successfully play video games using only his thoughts.
The company also has come under fire for past abuse of monkeys and other animals, including botched surgeries while conducting research on monkeys housed at the University of California, Davis. The company has since moved the monkey research into its own facilities.
Short said she was working with monkeys that contracted the herpes B virus when she was scratched through a glove. She accused the company of failing to provide adequate safety equipment for working with monkeys. On another occasion, when she was forced to perform a procedure she was not familiar with, a monkey scratched her face. When she insisted on medical treatment, her supervisor threatened “serious consequences” if it happened again, according to the complaint.
Short also said in the lawsuit that Neuralink failed to deliver on a promise to provide flexible work hours to meet the needs of her family and then demoted her in May 2023, two months after her promotion.
The following month, she told Neuralink’s human resources department that she was pregnant. According to the lawsuit, Short was fired the next day after the company said the termination was due to performance issues.