The epoch of superintelligence will not result in any meaningful improvements in animal welfare. Previous epochs of humanity, marked by transformative advancements such as the industrial and digital revolutions, have failed to yield meaningful improvements in animal welfare. If anything, these shifts created novel pathways for animal exploitation or rendered existing models, such as animal husbandry, vastly more lethal and efficient through the rise and continued development of factory farming. Unless there is a massive societal-level dietary shift, which I think is unlikely or a fundamental change in how society views animal bodies as exploitable resources free for the taking, AGI will likely follow this historical precedent. Like other transformative technologies before it, AGI will be leveraged to further optimise efficiency and, by extension, the lethality of existing egregious practices.
The epoch of superintelligence will not result in any meaningful improvements in animal welfare. Previous epochs of humanity, marked by transformative advancements such as the industrial and digital revolutions, have failed to yield meaningful improvements in animal welfare. If anything, these shifts created novel pathways for animal exploitation or rendered existing models, such as animal husbandry, vastly more lethal and efficient through the rise and continued development of factory farming. Unless there is a massive societal-level dietary shift, which I think is unlikely or a fundamental change in how society views animal bodies as exploitable resources free for the taking, AGI will likely follow this historical precedent. Like other transformative technologies before it, AGI will be leveraged to further optimise efficiency and, by extension, the lethality of existing egregious practices.