I don’t think this is guaranteed, but if AI goes well and is used to develop better tasting, healthier, and more cost effective cultivated meat, it will be more likely to be adopted and will reduce reliance on factory farmed animals.
On the other hand, wild animals could be preserved as they are or spread throughout the galaxy, potentially increasing net suffering.
I think AI going well would leave a lot of this up to human choice and is therefore uncertain.
Hailey Sherman
Karma: 64
Research report: modern alternative proteins did not replace meat purchases in restaurants
I know this is an old post, but just wanted to fill in for future readers, there’s a study on Arxiv where they tested this question and the paper states that “when an animal was described as more capable, they tended to prioritize it over a less-capable human.”
Here’s the study:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.11534
Good question and I’m sure that would be a good thing to replicate in future studies and with different models as well.
I’m getting this message when I click any of the google doc links: