#185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals

#185 – Lewis Bollard on the 7 most promising ways to end factory farming, and whether AI is going to be good or bad for animals

"The constraint right now on factory farming is how far can you push the biology of these animals? But AI could remove that constraint. It could say, 'Actually, we can push them further in these ways and these ways, and they still stay alive. And we’ve modelled out every possibility and we’ve found that it works.' I think another possibility, which I don’t understand as well, is that AI could lock in current moral values. And I think in particular there’s a risk that if AI is learning from what we do as humans today, the lesson it’s going to learn is that it’s OK to tolerate mass cruelty, so long as it occurs behind closed doors. I think there’s a risk that if it learns that, then it perpetuates that value, and perhaps slows human moral progress on this issue." —Lewis Bollard

In today’s episode, host Luisa Rodriguez speaks to Lewis Bollard — director of the Farm Animal Welfare programme at Open Philanthropy — about the promising progress and future interventions to end the worst factory farming practices still around today.

Links to learn more, highlights, and full transcript.

They cover:

  • The staggering scale of animal suffering in factory farms, and how it will only get worse without intervention.
  • Work to improve farmed animal welfare that Open Philanthropy is excited about funding.
  • The amazing recent progress made in farm animal welfare — including regulatory attention in the EU and a big win at the US Supreme Court — and the work that still needs to be done.
  • The occasional tension between ending factory farming and curbing climate change
  • How AI could transform factory farming for better or worse — and Lewis’s fears that the technology will just help us maximise cruelty in the name of profit.
  • How Lewis has updated his opinions or grantmaking as a result of new research on the “moral weights” of different species.
  • Lewis’s personal journey working on farm animal welfare, and how he copes with the emotional toll of confronting the scale of animal suffering.
  • How listeners can get involved in the growing movement to end factory farming — from career and volunteer opportunities to impactful donations.
  • And much more.

Chapters:

  • Common objections to ending factory farming (00:13:21)
  • Potential solutions (00:30:55)
  • Cage-free reforms (00:34:25)
  • Broiler chicken welfare (00:46:48)
  • Do companies follow through on these commitments? (01:00:21)
  • Fish welfare (01:05:02)
  • Alternatives to animal proteins (01:16:36)
  • Farm animal welfare in Asia (01:26:00)
  • Farm animal welfare in Europe (01:30:45)
  • Animal welfare science (01:42:09)
  • Approaches Lewis is less excited about (01:52:10)
  • Will we end factory farming in our lifetimes? (01:56:36)
  • Effect of AI (01:57:59)
  • Recent big wins for farm animals (02:07:38)
  • How animal advocacy has changed since Lewis first got involved (02:15:57)
  • Response to the Moral Weight Project (02:19:52)
  • How to help (02:28:14)

Producer and editor: Keiran Harris
Audio engineering lead: Ben Cordell
Technical editing: Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
Additional content editing: Katy Moore and Luisa Rodriguez
Transcriptions: Katy Moore

Jaksot(324)

#19 - Samantha Pitts-Kiefer on working next to the White House trying to prevent nuclear war

#19 - Samantha Pitts-Kiefer on working next to the White House trying to prevent nuclear war

Rogue elements within a state’s security forces enrich dozens of kilograms of uranium. It’s then assembled into a crude nuclear bomb. The bomb is transported on a civilian aircraft to Washington D.C, ...

14 Helmi 20181h 4min

#18 - Ofir Reich on using data science to end poverty & the spurious action-inaction distinction

#18 - Ofir Reich on using data science to end poverty & the spurious action-inaction distinction

Ofir Reich started out doing math in the military, before spending 8 years in tech startups - but then made a sharp turn to become a data scientist focussed on helping the global poor. At UC Berkeley...

31 Tammi 20181h 18min

#17 - Will MacAskill on moral uncertainty, utilitarianism & how to avoid being a moral monster

#17 - Will MacAskill on moral uncertainty, utilitarianism & how to avoid being a moral monster

Immanuel Kant is a profoundly influential figure in modern philosophy, and was one of the earliest proponents for universal democracy and international cooperation. He also thought that women have no ...

19 Tammi 20181h 52min

#16 - Michelle Hutchinson on global priorities research & shaping the ideas of intellectuals

#16 - Michelle Hutchinson on global priorities research & shaping the ideas of intellectuals

In the 40s and 50s neoliberalism was a fringe movement within economics. But by the 80s it had become a dominant school of thought in public policy, and achieved major policy changes across the Englis...

22 Joulu 201755min

#15 - Phil Tetlock on how chimps beat Berkeley undergrads and when it’s wise to defer to the wise

#15 - Phil Tetlock on how chimps beat Berkeley undergrads and when it’s wise to defer to the wise

Prof Philip Tetlock is a social science legend. Over forty years he has researched whose predictions we can trust, whose we can’t and why - and developed methods that allow all of us to be better at p...

20 Marras 20171h 24min

#14 - Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

#14 - Sharon Nunez & Jose Valle on going undercover to expose animal abuse

What if you knew that ducks were being killed with pitchforks? Rabbits dumped alive into containers? Or pigs being strangled with forklifts? Would you be willing to go undercover to expose the crime? ...

13 Marras 20171h 25min

#13 - Claire Walsh on testing which policies work & how to get governments to listen to the results

#13 - Claire Walsh on testing which policies work & how to get governments to listen to the results

In both rich and poor countries, government policy is often based on no evidence at all and many programs don’t work. This has particularly harsh effects on the global poor - in some countries governm...

31 Loka 201752min

#12 - Beth Cameron works to stop you dying in a pandemic. Here’s what keeps her up at night.

#12 - Beth Cameron works to stop you dying in a pandemic. Here’s what keeps her up at night.

“When you're in the middle of a crisis and you have to ask for money, you're already too late.” That’s Dr Beth Cameron, who leads Global Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative...

25 Loka 20171h 45min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
rss-narsisti
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
psykopodiaa-podcast
adhd-podi
rss-rahamania
rss-niinku-asia-on
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
psykologia
aamukahvilla
kesken
rss-koira-haudattuna
koulu-podcast-2
mielipaivakirja
rss-uskonto-on-tylsaa
rss-tietoinen-yhteys-podcast-2
ilona-rauhala
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-opi-espanjaa