Speciesist bias in AI: a reply to Arandjelović

Abstract

The elimination of biases in artificial intelligence (AI) applications—for example biases based on race or gender—is a high priority in AI ethics. So far, however, efforts to eliminate bias have all been anthropocentric. Biases against nonhuman animals have not been considered, despite the influence AI systems can have on normalizing, increasing, or reducing the violence that is inflicted on animals, especially on farmed animals. Hence, in 2022, we published a paper in AI and Ethics in which we empirically investigated various examples of image recognition, word embedding, and language models, with the aim of testing whether they perpetuate speciesist biases. A critical response has appeared in AI and Ethics, accusing us of drawing upon theological arguments, having a naive anti-speciesist mindset, and making mistakes in our empirical analyses. We show that these claims are misleading.