Ronen Bar

Karma: 289

I am a social entrepreneur focused on advancing a new community-building initiative to ensure AI development benefits all sentient beings, including animals, humans, and future digital minds. For over a decade, my work has been at the intersection of technological innovation and animal advocacy, particularly in the alternative protein and investigative sectors.

I am the co-founder and former CEO of Sentient, a meta animal rights non-profit. My background includes work as an investigative journalist on television and undercover employment in slaughterhouses.

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or email (ronenbar07@gmail.com).

I am looking for a co-founder and collaborators for the new initiative to ensure AI development benefits all sentientkind. I am happy to share ideas and receive feedback.

I have been practicing Vipassana meditation for several years.

Ronen Bar Apr 17, 2025, 12:00 PM
2 points
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in reply to: VeryJerry’s comment on: Developing AI Safety: Bridging the Power-Ethics Gap (Introducing New Concepts)
And thinking more long term, when AGI builds a superintelligence, that will build the next agents, and humans are somewhere 5-6 scales down the intelligence scale, what chance do we have for moral consideration and care by those superior beings? unless we realize we need to care for all beings, and build an AI that cares for all beings…

Ronen Bar Apr 17, 2025, 11:57 AM
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on: The ‘Bad Parent’ Problem: Why Human Society Complicates AI Alignment
I think this “Human Alignment” your talking about is very important and neglected. You don’t hear a many people call for an ethical transformation as a necessary adaptive step to the AGI era…

Ronen Bar Apr 12, 2025, 4:39 AM
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in reply to: Karen Singleton’s comment on: Where Are the Older People in Our Movement?
I completely agree.

Ronen Bar Apr 9, 2025, 6:35 PM
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in reply to: jasonk’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
Thanks Jason.
Yes, I agree that a “woke” backlash is a significant risk. I think the first step is research to define what a sentient-centric AI truly is: what is the vision and how it behaves in a world full of conflicts of interest between humans and animals.
In my view, the answer must be an AI that uplifts humanity and strengthens safety for humans too. A kind AI that aims for gradual change, and that, to an extent, accepts the reality that our current civilization is built on harming animals. We need an AI that helps shift this, but patiently and strategically.
I know it sounds grand, but I think as humanity, we need a new narrative, and probably the AI era will bring a new narrtaive anyway. So we should promote the stewardship narrative toward all sentient beings. If we are building something godlike, it makes sense that we grow into this kind of responsibility. This AI for sentientkind movement isn’t about “going vegan” and because of that it may trigger less public resistance. and this could tap into the compassion many people already have.
The hope is that with the tremendous power AI will give humans, to reshape both the world and themselves, the conflict of interest with animals will shrink dramatically, making it easier to accept and implement change.

Ronen Bar Apr 4, 2025, 6:43 AM
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in reply to: Beyond Singularity’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
That is a great idea, thanks for all your remarks. I would be happy to hear more about your vision for this, will DM you, hope it is OK.

Ronen Bar Apr 4, 2025, 6:38 AM
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in reply to: VeryJerry’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
I think creating content on these topics is very valuable, and I am happy to brainstorm other options. I will also do a post on possible interventions.

Ronen Bar Apr 2, 2025, 5:50 AM
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in reply to: SiobhanBall’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
Thanks for the feedback!!

”we already can’t agree as humans on what is moral”

I don’t the fact that all humankind can’t agree on a specific set of morals, tough many things are quite in consensus, at least in the west, prevent AGI or ASI from having a set of value. They are baking morals into those models, so the question in—what will those values be? and they are already not the values of the median worldwide person but more like the values of the median person in San Francisco (e.g. the models are very LGBTQ+ friendly)
“Why would they build something that could disobey them and potentially betray them for some greater good that they might not agree with?”

I am not suggesting they build something that will betray the creators of the models, and one of the goals of AI alignment research is how to make models corrigible—so humans can change their set of values and not get stuck with something (What is value lock-in? (YouTube video)). We need to convince the leaders of AI companies and regulators to align models with a Sentientism worldview (because of morality, because of public demand for this, because it is a robust way to keep humans safe, and more).

”I’m mindful of the risk of confusion as one commenter mentioned that MA could be synonymous with social alignment. I think a different term is needed. ”
That is a great point, and I didn’t make this clear in the post. Moral Alignment is the field focused on the question what are the right values, the true moral values, that we should align AI to. Within that there could be different views, and I think the stance of most people in our community is the promote the Sentientism view. Moral Alignment differs from AI technical Alignment since technical alignment focus on making AI do what we want, and MA focus on—what do we want?
I would be glad to hear more alternative ideas for concepts, if you have some. I am going to do interviews with relevant people to get some structured feedback on several possible terms. I am not set yet on any term
So you would call this Sentient beings sentinel? I like this play of words and also wrote something using it. I see the sentientist value alignment as inside MA.

“The vast majority of humans still don’t rate animal sentience as being a good enough reason to stop killing them en masse, so it’s unlikely that they’re going to care about it when developing AI.”
I think the majority does care about animals and would want AI to care about them. ppls states values are better, much better, than their deeds. This movement is not about asking ppl to go vegan, it is about striving to take the good stewardship role that humanity has long dreamed of in ancient books and stories.

“what does MA seek to achieve, that isn’t already the focal point of AI for Animals? If I’ve understood correctly, you want MA to be a broader umbrella term for works which AI for Animals contributes to.”
Yes, MA is about animals, humans, future digital minds, and anybody that can feel. It is the space that tries works on the question—what values should we align AI to? and Sentientism is the worldview that I hope many people will promote.

I think there is a lot of work to be done in this space, some of it is about bringing more talent and money, some of it is about promoting the interests of all the groups altogether (e.g. how does a sentient-centric AI behaves? it is a crucial question that is not being researched), some is specific intervention e.g. we need to convince AI companies to have a clear stance on non-humans. They currentl don’t.

Ronen Bar Mar 30, 2025, 1:25 PM
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in reply to: drbrake 🔸’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
I agree there is the opposite danger as well, and perhaps we have yet to known those dangers and new conflict of interests between humans and animals…
I assume with ASI, the risk of possible future digital minds being in a conflict of interests with humans is bigger than for animals.

Ronen Bar Mar 28, 2025, 6:01 PM
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in reply to: Antony Henao’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
Thanks Anthony! Very interesting stuff. I wrote some thought on the intersection of Buddhism and EA here Effective Self-Help—A guide to improving your subjective wellbeing but your referring to some other questions. I dont think I am deep enought in self observation to understand and have an insight on no-self or no-being, but I think the Buddhist teaching can bring people to a more sentient centric, experience centric vision and deep understanding. it is also pushing me in that direction
I read part of the zen and the art of saving the planet but not the others you mentioned
Did you hear about this?
https://www.monasticacademy.org/ai-fellowship
And this
https://buddhismforai.sutra.co/space/cbodvy/register

Ronen Bar Mar 28, 2025, 5:46 PM
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in reply to: Chris Leong’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
Thanks Chris, yes please share more thoughts on that, it sounds very relevant and important.

Ronen Bar Mar 28, 2025, 10:53 AM
8 points
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on: How should we adapt animal advocacy to near-term AGI?
I agree, it is crucial that the animal advocacy movement learn research and prepare a wise and informed strategy for pre AGI and post AGI times.

Ronen Bar Mar 27, 2025, 12:47 PM
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in reply to: Ramiro’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
Yes I completely agree, Moral alignment and controllability/safety alignment are very interconnected and one effects the other

Ronen Bar Mar 27, 2025, 11:08 AM
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in reply to: drbrake 🔸’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
I think this is exactly why we need research building a vision of how a sentient centric ASI—that works with humanity to gradually improve lives for everyone—behaves. As humanity gets stronger and more able to control the outside environment and inside body and mind, we may see less conflict of interests between animals and humans, and this can creates a monumental chance to take a stewardship role in relation to non-humans.

Ronen Bar Mar 26, 2025, 6:09 PM
2 points
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in reply to: Joseph_Chu’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
If humans agree they want an AI that cares about everyone who feels, or at least that is what we are striving for, than classical alignment is aligned with a sentient centric AI.
In a world with much more abundance and less scarcity, less conflict of interests between humans and non humans, I suspect this view to be very popular, and I think it is already popular to an extent.

Ronen Bar Mar 26, 2025, 6:04 PM
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in reply to: MatthewDahlhausen’s comment on: AI Moral Alignment: The Most Important Goal of Our Generation
And human deeds are very different from human states values.
I think research to define exactly what is a sentient centric AI, is one of the first important things to do, and it’s possible

Ronen Bar Oct 8, 2024, 3:55 AM
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on: Discussion thread: Animal Welfare vs. Global Health Debate Week
Animal Welfare is so neglected… it is just mind-blowing.

Ronen Bar Sep 24, 2024, 7:48 AM
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in reply to: Laila Fiszer’s comment on: Vipassana and Effective Altruism: How meditation empowered me as an activist
Thanks Laila! I agree that mediation should not be a guide how to act to ‘save others’. But it should, optimally, create the willingness, the wanting, some vision maybe even, to act for others, including, and maybe especially, at the macro effective altruism level, where each one does what he thinks is best to reduce suffering in the world. and this, at the macro level, is missing, in my view.

Ronen Bar Sep 23, 2024, 2:18 PM
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in reply to: Ivan Burduk’s comment on: Vipassana and Effective Altruism: How meditation empowered me as an activist
Yes I also think probably the EA community is doing more vipassana than the general population, but it is still, I assume, uncommon and is not supported in any structural way

Ronen Bar Jan 31, 2024, 4:20 PM
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in reply to: Ula Zarosa’s comment on: Envisioning a Central Knowledge Hub for the Animal Advocacy Movement
I didn’t hear about such an initiative from Anima International, but if you know any other details about it I would love to hear, thanks!