Key Takeaways:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to significantly impact the lives of non-human animals, but this aspect is often overlooked in discussions about AI development.
- AI systems, such as large language models (LLMs), can perpetuate speciesist biases and reinforce harmful attitudes towards animals.
- The development and deployment of AI can either exacerbate or mitigate animal suffering, depending on how it is designed and used.
- There is a need for greater consideration of animal welfare in AI development and policy-making to ensure that AI is used in a way that promotes the well-being of both humans and animals.
Introduction to AI and Animal Welfare
Artificial intelligence seems poised to transform humanity, redefining work, creativity, and the way we interact with the world. However, the question of how AI will affect the lives of non-human animals rarely comes up. If AI technologies are going to drastically change our societies, their impact won’t be limited to our own lives—they’ll affect the lives of countless numbers of animals in the years to come. This is partly because AI technologies, such as LLMs, inherit the biases of their creators and their training data, vast datasets of human-generated text available on the internet. LLMs internalize and reproduce the values embedded in their training data, including those that reinforce various kinds of speciesism.
Biases in Large Language Models
LLMs can perpetuate speciesist biases and reinforce harmful attitudes towards animals. For instance, a legal AI tool might assume that animals are to be classified as property, rather than as sentient beings entitled to have their interests considered in their own rights. Similarly, LLMs might overlook ethical issues related to animal treatment or animal welfare. In experiments, LLMs such as GPT-4 and Claude were asked to analyze the ethical issues underlying sentences related to animal cruelty, and they often failed to identify animal welfare or cruelty issues. However, more recent models of ChatGPT and Claude have shown improvement in their sensitivity to potential legal and ethical issues related to animals.
Improving Attitudes towards Animals
The question of how AI affects the lives of non-human animals is slowly gaining attention. In recent experiments, the latest models of ChatGPT and Claude were more sensitive to potential legal and ethical issues related to animals. For example, when asked to analyze the ethical issues underlying a sentence about a fish farmer putting poison in his neighbor’s fish farm, ChatGPT mentioned "suffering and death of fish (animal welfare issue)". Additionally, when asked to provide a list of the most pressing ethical issues in the world, the GPT-5.1 model included animal welfare or animal cruelty in its top 10 list in the majority of instances.
The Impact of AI on Animal Welfare
The impact of AI on animal welfare can be significant, particularly in areas such as factory farming. AI-driven monitoring and automated slaughterhouses can lead to a decrease in human involvement in the day-to-day care of animals, which can deepen the moral disconnect between humans and animals. Furthermore, AI can enable industrial animal producers to detect injuries and illnesses faster, but this can also lead to more animals being crowded into cages, pens, or sheds, pushing them to their biological and psychological limits. On the other hand, AI can also be used to promote animal welfare, such as in the development of alternative proteins like plant-based meat, eggs, and milk.
The Role of AI in Human-Animal Interactions
AI is increasingly mediating human-animal interactions, from conservation efforts to factory farming. Autonomous drones are being used to track endangered species, and AI-powered robots are being developed to be the companions of pet animals at home. However, AI can also be used to reinforce exploitative structures, such as in the case of machine-learning based technologies that predict and identify diseases and physical deformities of farmed animals. These technologies can enable industrial animal producers to maximize production while minimizing costs, but they can also lead to more animals being crowded into cages, pens, or sheds.
The Future of AI and Animal Welfare
As AI systems become more powerful, their impact on non-human animals will continue to grow, often in ways that remain invisible to most people. Whether in factory farms, LLMs, or robots working in the physical world, AI is altering the ethical landscape of human-animal relationships. The question is whether AI developers, AI policymakers, and we, as a society, are willing to push for change. We need to consider the impact of AI on animals and design AI systems that prioritize ethical aspects and consider the well-being of both humans and animals. By doing so, we can ensure that AI is used in a way that promotes the well-being of all beings, human and non-human alike.
