“Addressing the nonhuman gap in intergovernmental AI governance frameworks” by Alistair Stewart, Ronen Bar

Originally submitted as a project for the AI Safety Fundamentals AI Governance course in April 2025; edited and somewhat expanded for publication on the EA Forum in July 2025. Thanks to Yip Fai Tse, Arturs Kanepajs, Max Taylor, Constance Li, Kevin Xia, Adrià Moret and Sam Tucker-Davis for advice and suggestions before and/or after the writing of this piece. Introduction We review how major AI governance frameworks address – or, more commonly, overlook – the interests of sentient nonhumans, including both biological animals and potentially sentient artificial beings. Our analysis reveals a systemic exclusion of nonhuman interests across governance instruments, with few meaningful acknowledgments of their moral status. Grounded in an ethical perspective that values sentience regardless of species or substrate, we propose approaches to integrate nonhuman interests into these AI governance frameworks, focusing on the EU AI Act and various UN AI governance instruments. Our proposals are deliberately [...] ---Outline:(00:38) Introduction(01:37) 1. Policy review(02:05) 1.1. EU Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, 2019(03:08) 1.2. EU AI Act, 2024(04:12) 1.3. United Nations policy(04:42) 1.4. Serbia's Ethical Guidelines for AI, 2023(05:07) 2. Analysis(07:46) 3. Proposals(08:10) 3.1. Updating the EU AI Act(08:15) Legal Foundation(09:19) Areas of amendment(12:03) 3.2. Creating a UN Stewardship for All Life declaration(12:51) 3.3. Adding to the Sustainable Development Goals(13:55) 3.4. Updating the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI(14:50) 3.5. Expanding the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body on AI(15:52) 4. Conclusion--- First published: July 15th, 2025 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gmYF7jqyGTuiweEcB/addressing-the-nonhuman-gap-in-intergovernmental-ai --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.