The Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience launched at LSE on September 30, aiming to crack the code on animal consciousness. The £4 million center will study everything from pets to insects using brain science, philosophy, AI, and more.
One headline project: using AI to “talk” with pets. But there’s a warning. The center’s director, Prof Jonathan Birch, flagged risks with AI’s habit of making up answers to please users. That could lead to pet welfare disasters.
Birch called for global rules to govern ethical AI use in animal care. He pointed out how AI-driven pet translation apps might give false comfort, like assuring owners their dog isn’t suffering from separation anxiety when it actually is. 
“We like our pets to display human characteristics and with the advent of AI, the ways in which your pet will be able to speak to you is going to be taken to a whole new level,” said Prof Jonathan Birch.
“But AI often generates made-up responses that please the user rather than being anchored in objective reality. This could be a disaster if applied to pets’ welfare.”
The center will also tackle AI and farming ethics, and concerns about driverless cars protecting pets. It plans to team up with NGOs to shape animal welfare policies worldwide.
Other trustees see this as a knockout chance to answer big questions on consciousness and bridge the gap between how people think about animals — and how they treat them.
“Only when we have a better understanding of how other animals feel and communicate will we be able to acknowledge our own shortcomings in how we treat them,” said Jeremy Coller, whose foundation funds the center.
“Just as the Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphics, I am convinced the power of AI can help us unlock our understanding of how other animals experience their interactions with humans.”
Expect the center to be the new hub for science, ethics, and AI intersecting at the mysterious world of animal minds.
