Sam Tucker

Open Paws is dedicated to creating AI systems free of speciesist bias, contributing to broader AI safety and alignment efforts. Our mission is to ensure that future AI systems respect and protect all sentient beings, reducing the likelihood that superintelligent AI will adopt harmful biases, such as speciesism, which could be extended towards humans. 

We estimate that in the short term our AI could save 20-70 animal lives per dollar spent, making it a highly cost-effective solution compared to traditional animal welfare initiatives. In the long term, our research into the effects of speciesist bias on other forms of bias and power seeking behaviours in AI will serve as a foundational step towards aligning advanced AI with the interests of all sentient beings. This is not only crucial for animal welfare, but is also a preventive strategy against potential maladaptive behaviors in future AI systems that could pose existential risks to humanity.

We are seeking $150K to $1.5M to fund the development of AI tools that are explicitly designed to recognize and eliminate speciesist biases. This funding will support cloud computing, tool development, and research. If additional funds are secured, we will be able to expand our scope to more sophisticated AI systems and further our research into how eliminating speciesist bias can prevent power-seeking behaviors in superintelligent AI, thereby addressing a critical gap in current AI safety research.

Our project will collect data on speciesist biases in AI, develop AI tools to address these biases, share them with major AI labs and publish research on our findings. The impact of our work will provide empirical data and methodologies that can be used to combat various forms of bias in AI, thereby contributing to safer AI development practices. Success will be measured by the adoption rate of our tools, feedback from organizations using them, and advancements in AI benchmarks focused on bias and threat detection.

Our project is led by individuals with deep expertise in AI development and ethical frameworks. Sam Tucker, our Executive Director, has over 15 years in animal advocacy and AI system development, bringing valuable experience in ethical AI applications. Ahn Howell, our CTO, is not only skilled in AI but is also deeply engaged in research at the intersection of technology and society, ensuring our AI systems are developed with a strong ethical foundation critical for AI safety.