How AI could improve the lives of trillions of animals

We think a lot about how AI will affect humanity, and for good reason. But AI could have an enormous impact on the trillions of animals that share our world (for better or worse), and almost nobody is talking about it.

In this episode, we talk with Constance Li, founder of Sentient Futures, an organization working to make sure AI and other emerging technologies improve the lives of animals rather than harm them.

We touch on:

• The enormous scale of animal suffering today, and why AI could either worsen or improve it depending on the decisions we make.
• Using computer vision and sensors to monitor animals and optimize for their welfare rather than just productivity.
• The research that’s being done to use AI to communicate with animals and what it’s already telling us about their well-being.
• Other sentient beings that could be impacted by emerging technologies, like artificial minds and biocomputing.

Timestamps:

0:00 Cold open

1:57 Why AI and animals is an overlooked combination

4:46 The staggering scale of factory farming

8:26 How a physician became an animal welfare advocate

10:19 What Sentient Futures does day-to-day

11:38 What "AI for animals" actually means

14:23 Why the organization was renamed Sentient Futures, and the question of AI moral patients

18:08 The biggest misconceptions about AI for animals

20:26 What is precision livestock farming?

24:46 Best and worst-case scenarios for AI in farms

27:46 Communication across species: promise and limitations

35:56 Genetic welfare and using genetics in farms

43:34 What a best-case scenario for AI and animals looks like in the next 5–10 years

47:11 The biggest hurdles: funding and attention

48:39 How to get involved with Sentient Futures

50:44 What gives Constance hope

On the Existential Hope Podcast hosts Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers from the Foresight Institute invite scientists, founders, and philosophers for in-depth conversations on positive, high-tech futures.

Full transcript, listed resources, and more: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts

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