Animal Welfare is Just Part of AI Alignment Now

And both movements are better for it.The animal welfare movement and the AI alignment movement grew up in the same community, but they've been operating in separate lanes. That's a mistake — and it's one both sides can fix. In this essay, I argue that the arrival of transformative AI makes animal welfare a wholly-owned subsidiary of the broader "Make AI Go Well" movement, whether either side likes it or not. For animal advocates, that means putting AI at the center of our strategic thinking, including designing our campaigns with AI training data in mind. For alignment researchers, it means recognizing that a post-AGI world full of factory farming is a failure mode, not a footnote. I make the case that both movements need each other more than they realize, and that the skills each has developed are exactly what the other is missing.This audio version of Sandcastles is produced using an AI clone of Aidan's voice. Please forgive mispronunciations. Read the original on Substack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sandcastlesblog.substack.com