AI could soon help humans 'talk' to their pets, finds new UK research: 'This could be a disaster...'

Every pet owner has ardently wished to be able to communicate with their pets. We often wonder what our lovely canine companions are thinking or want to know the reason behind their whimpering to help them get out of distress. Thanks to new research, this might just be possible now. The £4 million Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience is opening at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on September 30 to address this very problem. As reported by The Guardian, it will be the first scientific center focused on studying animal consciousness, including species as different from humans as insects, crabs, and cuttlefish.

The center will bring together experts from fields like neuroscience, philosophy, veterinary science, AI, law, and psychology to explore how animals think and feel. One of the center's key goals is to use artificial intelligence to help humans better understand and possibly 'talk' with their pets. But this research raises both exciting and risky possibilities. According to Prof Jonathan Birch, the inaugural director of the center, "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." 

However, he also warned that AI can make up answers to make people feel good instead of sharing the truth. "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." Birch also gave the examples of separation anxiety in dogs, due to which pet owners want reassurance that their pets will be fine when left alone. He explained that future AI tools could give comforting answers that aren't true, which could actually harm the animals by ignoring their real needs.

He further opined, "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. The centre wants to develop ethical guidelines that will be recognised globally." The center also looked at broader issues involving AI and animals, such as the use of driverless cars, which are designed to avoid humans but not animals. Birch comments on this, "We have a lot of debate around them not hitting people but we don’t talk about them also avoiding cats and dogs."

He also raised concerns about the rapid automation of farming, where machines are replacing human care in animal agriculture. "But it is happening without much scrutiny or discussion, which raises huge ethical questions about what the limits are: should farming involve caring relationships with animals? If so, the current direction is not the way in which we want farming to go."

Experts around the world support this initiative. Jeff Sebo, director at New York University, called these issues some of the most overlooked problems today, and told The Guardian, "Humans share the world with millions of species and quintillions of individual animals, and we affect animals all over the world whether we like it or not." Prof Kristin Andrews, one of the new center's trustees, also shared her opinion, "We still don’t understand what makes humans conscious, or why anyone starts or stops being conscious. But we do know that the way to get answers is to study simple systems first: science has made great strides in genomics and in medicine by studying simple organisms." That's why research into pet behavior is crucial if we want to imagine a future where animals are awarded at least a fundamental dignity.