Congratulations on the event! Great to see this conversation expand. And great report for ops nerds
I’m curious about the accommodation you provided. The itemized breakdown notes that it was mostly airbnbs. Was it self-booked and compensated or centrally organized? Was taking out a block of rooms at a hotel or hostel considered?
Accommodations: We self booked the airbnbs and had people fill out a form about accommodation preferences (comfort with sleeping in common spaces, sharing rooms with same/opposite gender, light/sound sensitivity). Then we assigned houses to everyone and set up a whatsapp chat for each of the houses to communicate with one another. One person was the designated housing manager who made sure each house had the things it needed and the relevant airbnb checkin/out info was posted to each whatsapp. We didn't charge anything for housing because the ops side of collecting money for each person corresponding to how long they stayed seemed like too much overhead. Instead of reimbursing people for travel support (which many conferences do), we just offered a free registration and spot in the shared accommodations instead, making it much cleaner from an expense tracking perspective.
I'll share the form privately with you via a DM on the forum!
Executive summary: The 2025 AI for Animals Bay Area conference successfully expanded its scope and impact, connecting a multidisciplinary community around using AI to improve nonhuman welfare, with high-profile speakers, diverse sessions, and strong attendee engagement highlighting its growing influence in the field.
Key points:
The third annual AI for Animals conference drew ~550 participants and featured 81 sessions across panels, workshops, and unconferences, supported by a volunteer-led team and a $74k budget.
Attendees averaged 7 new connections and 3 potentially high-impact ones; 89% rated the event as more valuable than alternative uses of their time.
The event brought together diverse stakeholders—AI researchers, ethicists, NGOs, digital minds researchers, and funders—through strategic outreach and partnerships, especially aligning with the EA Global Bay Area schedule.
Session highlights included talks by Peter Singer, Cass Sunstein, and David Pearce, as well as panels on AI sentience, digital minds, legal personhood, and precision livestock farming.
Notable innovations included a custom unconference system integrated with Swapcard, expanded accommodations, professional recordings, and satellite events.
Organizers identified areas for improvement such as clearer knowledge level indicators, earlier agenda release, and better-structured meetups and workshops.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.
AI for Animals 2025 Bay Area Retrospective — EA Forum
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 (now Sentient Futures) 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 that might be impactful (defined as someone who would accelerate their path to impact by connecting them to a job opportunity or collaborating on a project).
See some quotes from our attendees about highlight (and lowlights) of the conference.
According to Swapcard, there were 2,100 total contacts made and 3,222 messages exchanged.
89% of respondents thought that participating in the conference was more impactful than how they would have otherwise spent their time.
The Event(s)
Overview: Our conference brought together leading thinkers at the intersection of artificial intelligence and animal welfare, featuring 81 unique sessions including keynote presentations, panels, workshops, and interactive meetups.
A selection of the sessions were recorded and are available on on our YouTube channel. Click ▶️ beside their names below to watch.
Speaking Sessions
Featured Talks
Animal-inspired approaches to assessing sentience in LLMs | Winnie Street
Animals and Longtermism: A Guide for the Perplexed | Daniela Waldhorn, Prof. Oscar Horta (▶️)
How Digital Minds Could Reshape Society | Lucius Caviola
Near term Superintelligence and Relevance for Animal Welfare Plans | Eli Tyre
Blueprint for a Pan-Species Welfare State: Genome Reform, AI and the Biohappiness Revolution | David Pearce (▶️)
AI for Wild Animal Welfare – A Review of Current Work and Future Potential | Janire Castellano Bueno
Aligning PLF with Welfare in Shrimp Farms | Aaron Boddy
Ethics, Animals, and AI Discussion and Q&A | Peter Singer (▶️)
Who Matters More, a Bat, a Bee, a Bot? | Prof. Jeff Sebo (▶️)
Preventing Suffering and Engineering Paradise | Andrés Gómez-Emilsson
The Relationship Between AI Welfare and Animal Welfare | Kathleen Finlinson (▶️)
Living in extremely unequal civilizations | Richard Ngo
AI Alignment – The Case for Including Animals | Soenke Ziesche and Adrià Moret
The Evolution of Intelligence: Insights from Systems Biology and SETI | Dante Lauretta (▶️)
Earth Species Project - Breakthroughs in Bioacoustics | Dr. Sara Keen (▶️)
Legal Standing, Regulatory Valuation of Animals, Choice Architectures, and More | Prof. Cass Sunstein (▶️)
Large-Scale Autonomous and Non-Invasive Monitoring of Animal Behavior and Motion | Dr. Aamir Ahmad (▶️)
Computer Vision Changes Everything | John Honchariw (▶️)
Code4Compassion Hackathon Recap | Ash Singh, Sam Tucker-Davis
Journalism at the intersection of animal representation and emerging technologies | Xander Balwit, Brandon Keim, Betsy Mason, Max Taylor (Moderator)
Storytelling for Animals and Digital Minds in the AI Era: Different Options | Ronen Bar (▶️)
Interactive Sessions
Unconferences
Show and Smell | Andrés Gómez-Emilsson
ChatGPT/LLM Use Cases Speed Share! | Steven Rouk
Meditative Insights on Animal Liberation | Eric Zhou
Workshop: Corporate Outreach in the Global South | Konrad Kozaczek
The Snowball Effect: How Key Tech Cities Can Fuel A Global Movement for Animals | Dean Wyrzykowski
Writing for AI Audiences | Mikko Järvenpää
A Massive Interspecies Communication Observatory | Leo Trottier
Teaching Dogs to Talk | Praful Mathur
Using Chatbots with Curated Personas to Drive Our Narratives | Cameron Harsh
Beyond Control: Intrinsic Understanding as a Path to AI Alignment | Lucia Caelum
Project Ideation Session: AI-Augmented Political Pressure Campaigns | Lance Lively
Establishing The Moral Alignment Space | Ronen Bar
Meetups
Precision Livestock Farming, Interspecies Communication, AI Benchmarking, Animal Advocacy, Alternative Proteins, Digital Minds, Veterinary Medicine
Mapping Workshops
Precision Livestock Farming, Interspecies Communication
Office Hours
David Pearce, Constance Li, Oscar Horta, Soenke Ziesche, Rob Long and Kathleen Finlinson, Dustin Crummett and Daniela Waldhorn, Jeff Sebo – The Moral Circle Book Reading
Topic Distribution
The following breakdown illustrates how our conference programming was split between different topics.
Satellite Events
Recognizing the significant effort required for attendees to travel, we strategically scheduled this conference one week after EAG. We curated a full lineup of satellite events throughout the interim week, providing participants with valuable work and social opportunities to maximize their time with like-minded individuals in the area.
Behind the Scenes
For even more details, see this accompanying appendix.
Personnel
AI for Animals Team:
Core Organizers: Constance Li, Sankalpa Ghose, and Santeri Tani
Program and Volunteer Lead: Sal Melidoro
Operations and Communications Lead: Chloe Jefferson
Thanks to everyone who made the conference run smoothly!
Do the shirts look familiar?
Handbooks
We borrowed a lot of what has historically worked from EAG, including many document templates, and adapted it to our needs. It is a great format and we wanted to iterate, not reinvent the wheel. See our comprehensive guides for attendees and volunteers.
Finances
The total cost for the conference was approximately $74k for 250 in-person attendees over 2 days along with related expenses in the week leading up to the conference. While this represents a significant increase from our previous conference ($~6k for ~60 in-person attendees over 3 days), we believe the expanded investment delivered substantially higher quality. We charged registration fees ranging from $75 - $800 depending on level of financial need, generating ~$23k in revenue.
Here are explainers for some of the major components of our budget:
Accommodations
Previous Conference: Housing for ~10 people (primarily speakers and volunteers) for 3 days
Current Conference: Housing for ~50 people (speakers, volunteers, and select attendees) for 2-7 days
Impact: This investment significantly increased networking opportunities and serendipitous connections. We've already identified one promising invertebrate welfare project that emerged directly from these interactions.
Professional Networking Platform
Previously, we had a Notion database of all attendees who consented to have their information listed in a directory.
This year, we purchased Swapcard, which proved essential for creating 1:1 meetings given our larger attendance and the significant overlap with the EAG conference audience
Contractor Compensation
While our previous conference relied heavily on volunteer coordination (primarily by Constance), this year's expanded scale required more support
We maintained a primarily volunteer team but team member to ensure proper execution. Full travel support was also provided for team members.
Venue Upgrade
Previously, we relied on free venues, which resulted in delayed confirmations, overcrowding, and logistical complications.
Through a partnership with a UC Berkeley student group, we secured a spacious venue at a significant discount.
The improved facility included a large theater, courtyard, outdoor patio, four breakout rooms, a quiet room, a balcony for storage, and dedicated campus support.
More Meals
Previously, we only served dinner for 1 night.
This time, we partnered with Bua Thai restaurant for cost-effective catering for the VIP dinner, both conference lunches, and the hackathon lunch. Leftover boxes were provided for people if they wanted to save some for dinner.
We streamlined breakfast service by opting instead for snacks throughout the day.
Outreach
We implemented a proactive speaker recruitment strategy beginning 6+ months before the conference. This approach featured personalized outreach and leveraged our existing networks, enabling us to secure high-profile speakers including Peter Singer, David Pearce, and Cass Sunstein well in advance.
Our promotion strategy centered on tailored invitations to special guests who could attract key audience segments that were stakeholders in this field. These invitations included:
Personalized recognition on our event website with name and photo
Complimentary or discounted registration
Exclusive access to our VIP dinner
This strategy was based on the hypothesis that reaching a critical mass of diverse, notable guests would create a snowball effect, attracting additional prominent and relevant participants. We believe a significant portion of the conference's impact stemmed from connecting previously separate communities, including:
Wild-animal welfare researchers
Conservationists
AI researchers
Animal welfare nonprofits
Suffering-focused ethicists
Digital minds researchers
Journalists
We also did the usual promotional avenues like inviting past attendees, including it in our newsletter, making it the homepage of our website, posting on the EA/FAST Forums, posting on Hive and other Slack workspaces, and starting our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, and X accounts and posting there. Emma wrote this report analyzing the social media strategy she used.
One unique promotion we did was a sneak peak webinar with 3 speakers on a range of topics that would be discussed at the conference.
We also gave out lots of discount codes for people who went to EAG Bay Area or who participated in the Code4Compassion Hackathon.
Event Reflection
What Went Well
High-profile speakers: We attracted several influential speakers who generated excitement and meaningful discussions among attendees.
Perfect attendance: All scheduled speakers fulfilled their commitments with no dropouts.
Professional execution: Multiple speakers specifically praised our thorough organization from initial outreach to the final session.
Innovative technology: Our custom unconference booking system integrated seamlessly with Swapcard, allowing participants to organize spontaneous sessions.
Lightning talks: These compact presentations were exceptionally well-received. The format provided a platform for numerous innovative ideas, and speakers appreciated having high-quality recordings to share within their networks.
Reliable volunteer team: We could not have conducted this event without the flexibility, professionalism, and dedication of the ~35 volunteers who showed up and put in the work. Their willingness to adapt and step up wherever needed made all the difference. Despite giving free registration prior to completion of duties, we still had 95% satisfactory fulfillment.
Areas for Improvement
Knowledge level indicators: Future sessions should clearly indicate expected knowledge level (beginner vs. advanced) to help attendees choose appropriate sessions.
Streamlined communications: One dedicated team member should handle all speaker outreach to prevent confusion.
Earlier agenda publication: The complete schedule should be finalized and published earlier, despite challenges with speakers who prefer not to appear on public schedules.
Strategic meetup timing: Meetups should be scheduled earlier in the conference to facilitate networking. We plan to restructure these as small, facilitated discussions rather than speed meetings.
Better structured workshops: The mapping workshops intended for field leaders lacked sufficient structure. In the future, these need clearer communication about purpose and format.
Unconference support: We should assign a volunteer to check in on unconference sessions and provide support to facilitators.
Nostalgia Note
One beloved element we brought back from our first conference: giant philosopher heads!
Get Involved
We're building a global community at the intersection of nonhuman welfare and artificial intelligence, and there are many ways to contribute to this growing field:
Join Our Next Events
AI, Animals, and Digital Minds 2025 in London: 30 May - 1 June, 2025
NYC Satellite Event: Following EAG NYC (dates to be announced)
Ways to Participate
Subscribe to our Newsletter: Receive updates about upcoming events, news, collaborations, and research opportunities
Join our Slack workspace: Connect with others interested in the field; stay informed about updates and opportunities; and learn about volunteer opportunities
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