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PAMBA 2025 at UCSB
What is an animal's right to privacy?
What is an animal's right to privacy?
Abstract: Recent work on privacy suggests many nonhuman animals may have a right to privacy from humans (e.g., Pepper, 2020). If animals can have a right to privacy, there might be potentially widespread implications for our interactions with the domesticated animals who live with us, the captive animals on display in zoos and being studied in laboratory facilities, and the wild animals who share spaces with us. How can we identify the contexts in which an animal deserves privacy from humans? In this paper, I argue that one way to identify these contexts is to identify and understand animal social norms. By studying animal social norms, we stand to learn what personal information animals need to control in order to have successful social relationships. Further, understanding animal privacy through social norms facilitates a better understanding of when humans might violate the privacy of animals. I discuss two ways: humans might interfere with behaviors governed by the norms of that animal’s community, and humans may violate the norms of a human-animal interspecies community structured by social norms. In both cases, studying animal social norms, and especially interspecies communities, will facilitate more concrete judgments about when animals deserve privacy and how we can respect their right.
The ethics of AI animal translation and the future of communication with animals (with Kristin Andrews)
The ethics of AI animal translation and the future of communication with animals (with Kristin Andrews)
Abstract: There is currently much scientific and public interest in using machine learning to uncover the meaning of animal signals, with the goal of creating a two-way communication system between humans and wild animals. This paper examines the research ethics that should govern this research, and explores the transformative implications if scientists are successful at creating translations between animal and human language. We argue that the scientific and philosophical literature on animal communication systems warrants the attempt to engage in these translation projects, and describe the current state of the art of the research. While the ability to have a two-way communication system with animals has many possible benefits, these come alongside no small number of risks to animal communities. We enumerate the risks that exist in the development of these models, in order to help scientists avoid them. Finally, we argue that the successful development of communication with animals both reveals an existing moral landscape and creates a new one. Radical translation of animal signals entails that animals already are rational beings who live in normative communities. Furthermore, the creation of these communicative systems also gives rise to new social ontologies, new responsibilities, and new demands. As researchers work to transform our social relationships with animals, they must also take on the responsibility to prepare humanity for the challenges that will arise in this new world.
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