AI futures for animals hold enormous opportunity – as well as risk. The direction this and other transformative technologies take will require concerted efforts from animal advocates, technical experts, researchers, policymakers, and more. Over the next eight weeks, we will engage with high-stakes issues from the present day (e.g. the emerging use of AI in factory farming) to the far future (e.g. developments across animal communication, genetic engineering, and beyond). Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge and network to steer these powerful technologies towards positive outcomes for all sentient beings.

This all starts today. In this session, you’ll get to know your facilitator and fellow learners. We'll walk through the course structure and themes, with plenty of time for your questions. We're so glad you're here.

AI is already shaping the lives of many animals today – sometimes directly (e.g. use in factory farming), and sometimes indirectly (e.g. speciesist bias in chatbots and image generation models). This session maps the current and near-future landscape where AI and animal lives intersect, exploring major benefits and risks for animals– as well as key leverage points for advocates.

Precision livestock farming (PLF) is a reality for many farmed animals today, and its use is likely to accelerate in coming years. Systems that are already being rolled out in factory farms track many aspects of farmed animals’ health, such as feed consumption, weight, lameness, and disease prevalence. This data is then processed through machine learning algorithms to identify patterns, enabling producers to more efficiently manage livestock.

Will PLF usher in a new era of welfare transparency across animal agriculture (“precision welfare”), or are we witnessing the takeoff of never-before-seen levels of fully automated animal exploitation?

Machine learning is driving rapid progress in “decoding” animal communication – with the potential to radically transform our relationships towards animals. This session explores the ethical and legal implications of such breakthroughs. Should we talk to animals at all, and if so, what ethical considerations should guide our interactions? Which animals are we giving voice to? How might our world change if breakthroughs allowed us to understand animals on their own terms? Are there limits to how much we can understand one another? And perhaps most importantly: Are we ready to listen?

Many traits are significantly influenced by genetic factors. Genetic modification is nothing new — humans have been selectively breeding animals and plants for thousands of years. However, recent developments, including gene editing (e.g. CRISPR) and gene drives – as well as the potential of AI to accelerate further research – raise pressing questions about the welfare implications of these tools. These questions are not simple: genetic interventions may reduce animal suffering in some contexts and exacerbate it in others, and their effects often interact with broader systemic factors — including farming conditions, regulatory oversight, and the viability of non-genetic alternatives. This week, we survey the current landscape of genetic modification in animals, examine the evidence for and against various applications, and develop a principled framework for evaluating when — and whether — genetic interventions are warranted.

Alternative proteins aim to do what decades of advocacy have not: make animal agriculture obsolete by offering products that are tastier, cheaper, and more convenient. Plant-based meat, cultivated meat, and precision fermentation each take a different route to this goal — and each faces different bottlenecks in manufacturing, regulatory approval, and consumer receptiveness. AI is increasingly being applied across all three pillars, but how much of this is real progress and how much is hype? Which constraints can machine learning actually solve, and which are fundamentally physical, financial, or political? And with investment down sharply from its 2021 peak, how should advocates think about timing, priorities, and the risk that these technologies stall before reaching the consumers who matter most?

What we do today may shape the lives of animals for billions of years to come. According to longtermism, positively influencing the far future is a key moral priority of our time. In this session, we will examine the implications of longtermism for animal advocacy, including how lock-in scenarios limit future pathways, uncertainty about the outcomes of our actions over increasingly long timescales, backfire risks, and a potential strategic reorientation: towards the welfare of wild animals.

The emergence of Transformative Artificial Intelligence (TAI) may fundamentally change the world as we know it – perhaps even sooner than you think. Imagine 100 years of scientific and technological progress, coupled with explosive economic growth – all in the span of 10 years. While it’s hard to predict what exactly this means for animals, one thing’s for certain: unless advocates adapt, our current business-as-usual strategies risk becoming obsolete. This session explores how best to future-proof our movement by shifting priorities toward interventions that remain robust across a wildly different technological and political landscape.

The AI×Animals future is in your hands. This final session distills all that we have learned over the past seven weeks into a concrete impact plan for you to carry forward after the fellowship. You will develop and receive targeted feedback on your project pitches and career strategies. Together, let’s build better AI futures for all sentient beings.