Speciesist Bias in AI: An Overlooked Threat to Animals

Artificial intelligence (AI) biases against humans based on race, gender, and ethnicity are frequently discussed. In contrast, AI biases against animals remain mostly unnoticed, undiscussed, and unaddressed — a "blind spot," says animal ethics philosopher Peter Singer. This article, the first in a five-part series about the impacts of AI on animals, explores AI's systemic bias against animals or "speciesist bias.” Rooted in biased AI data and algorithms, it permeates language models and image recognition, recommender, and image creation systems. While AI bias threatens animal rights and welfare, corrective measures can mitigate them.