A former Neuralink employee, Lindsay Short, is suing the company, claiming she was forced to work with lab monkeys that had herpes and even got scratched by one on her bare skin.
The former employee at Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface startup also claims she was fired after informing her managers that she was pregnant.
Short is accusing the company of retaliation, wrongful termination, and gender discrimination.
The lawsuit suggests there is much more happening behind closed doors at Neuralink. Short details encountering a “work environment fraught with blame, shame, and impossible deadlines” after she was moved to the company’s site in Fremont, California.
She explained that she got scratched through a glove by a monkey that carried the Herpes B virus and was never given adequate protective equipment to work with the animals.
In the lawsuit, she adds that she was threatened with “severe repercussions” by her boss if she insisted on medical treatment again.
Although she was promoted two months earlier, Short was sacked a day after informing her department she was pregnant.
Neuralink’s use of lab monkeys has already been the subject of much controversy. Last year, Wired reported that as many as a dozen rhesus macaques suffered from a variety of terrifying symptoms after being implanted with Neuralink chips, including brain swelling, partial paralysis, and self-harming behaviour, eventually leading to them being euthanised.
Musk has since denied the report, claiming the monkeys had been terminally ill, without ever providing proof to back up his claims. Last week, eight former SpaceX employees sued the company and its CEO, claiming they were wrongfully fired for raising concerns over rampant sexual harassment.