Our Mission: To build a multidisciplinary field around using technology—especially AI—to improve the lives of nonhumans now and in the future.
Overview
Background
This hybrid conference had nearly 550 participants and took place March 1-2, 2025 at UC Berkeley. It was organized by AI for Animals for $74k by volunteer core organizers Constance Li, Sankalpa Ghose, and Santeri Tani.
This conference has evolved since 2023:
* The 1st conference mainly consisted of philosophers and was a single track lecture/panel.
* The 2nd conference put all lectures on one day and followed it with 2 days of interactive unconference sessions happening in parallel and a week of in-person co-working.
* This 3rd conference had a week of related satellite events, free shared accommodations for 50+ attendees, 2 days of parallel lectures/panels/unconferences, 80 unique sessions, of which 32 are available on Youtube, Swapcard to enable 1:1 connections, and a Slack community to continue conversations year round.
We have been quickly expanding this conference in order to prepare those that are working toward the reduction of nonhuman suffering to adapt to the drastic and rapid changes that AI will bring.
Luckily, it seems like it has been working!
This year, many animal advocacy organizations attended (mostly smaller and younger ones) as well as newly formed groups focused on digital minds and funders who spanned both of these spaces. We also had more diversity of speakers and attendees which included economists, AI researchers, investors, tech companies, journalists, animal welfare researchers, and more. This was done through strategic targeted outreach and a bigger team of volunteers.
Outcomes
On our feedback survey, which had 85 total responses (mainly from in-person attendees), people reported an average of 7 new connections (defined as someone they would feel comfortable reaching out to for a favor like reviewing a blog post) and of those new connections, an average of 3
Hiya! Wondering if anyone wanted to donation swap with me for 2024?
I'm looking to donate around AUD 5,500 each to the Good Food Institute, Giving What We Can, and Family Empowerment Media. I think these are all tax-deductible in the US, UK, and the Netherlands, but sadly not in Australia (update: GWWC is tax-deductible in Australia via EA Australia, also there's currently a funding match for donations made before Jan 31st).
If anyone is planning on making a (roughly) similarly sized donation (GBP 2,900, USD 3,700, EUR 3,300) across 2024 (in one donation or split into months or quarters), to a charity that is tax-deductible in Australia please reach out!!!
Thanks a bunch,
Mitch
Update:
This went excellently and I've organised my swap! Thanks all