The London School of Economics is launching the world’s first academic institution dedicated to studying animal consciousness, with an ambitious agenda that includes exploring how artificial intelligence might one day enable humans to “speak” with their pets. Backed by a £4 million endowment, the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience will officially begin operations on September 30. One of the centre’s headline projects will investigate how AI could facilitate communication between humans and their pets, as well as the potential risks of doing so.
“With the advent of AI, the ways in which your pet will be able to speak to you are going to be taken to a whole new level,” said Professor Jonathan Birch, the centre’s inaugural director, as first reported by The Independent.
However, he warned that AI often produces responses designed to please users, rather than reflect objective reality, a dynamic that could have serious consequences for animal welfare if misapplied.
The centre aims to develop ethical frameworks for AI applications involving animals, filling what Birch describes as a regulatory vacuum. “We urgently need frameworks governing responsible, ethical AI use in relation to animals. At the moment, there’s a total lack of regulation in this sphere,” he said.
Scholars in the field see the centre as addressing long-overlooked issues. Jeff Sebo of NYU’s Center for Environmental and Animal Protection called animal consciousness and AI’s impact on animals “among the most important, difficult and neglected issues that we face as a society.” Trustee Professor Kristin Andrews added that the work could also advance human science: “We still don’t understand what makes humans conscious… but we do know that the way to get answers is to study simple systems first.”
