AI and animals
The first conference on the ethics of animals and AI was held at Princeton University in October, where we discussed some of the overlapping issues that arise when thinking about the ethics of nonhuman cognitive systems, and about the applications of AI that might impact other species. The talks are all available to view here. I spoke on the ethics of AI projects aimed at “translating” animals communication systems, such as the Earth Species Project. I considered the risks and the promise of these programs. If there are high costs and low promise, we should think twice. In order to make those estimations of risks and rewards, collaboration is needed between ethicists, philosophers of animal minds, ethologists, comparative psychologists, linguistics and the folks working in machine learning. The connections I made at this conference will, I hope, lead to this collaboration. I look forward to learning more about the animal communication projects and working together to ensure that they do not negatively impact the animals we’re hoping to communicate with.
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