At present, the scope of influence of artificial intelligence has expanded from humans to animals. Can artificial intelligence ethics cross species boundaries? What vigilance do humans need to keep about artificial intelligence? How can the East and the West meet the challenges brought by artificial intelligence through exchanges and cooperation? Peter Singer, one of the founders of practical ethics, professor at Princeton University and author of "Animal Liberation", recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service's "East and West Question" for interpretation.

The summary of the interview transcript is now as follows:

China News Service reporter: When did animal ethics originate? What are the differences between animal ethics in the East and the West?

Peter Singer: More than two thousand years ago when the West extended ethics to other species outside of humanity, Eastern Buddhism had warned people to be compassionate to all things.

Confucianism pays relatively little attention to animals, because in the way of Confucius and Mencius, human responsibilities are in sequence. First, it is responsible for family, neighbors and compatriots, and then it is the animal's turn.

The ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras is generally believed to be a vegetarian in the West. This was mentioned in some of the remnants of the Greek writer Plutarch and a paper written by the Neoplatonist Pophyly.

Ancient Hebrews was one of the important sources of Western culture. The Hebrew Bible contains some doctrines of treating animals with kindness, such as allowing cattle to rest on the Sabbath day. But there are also opinions that this regulation is not for the benefit of the bull.

Christianity believes that God created humans in his own image, excluding other animals and giving humans the power to dominate animals. Especially under the interpretation of Western philosopher Thomas Aquiner, Christian views are more harsh and directly deny that humans have any responsibility or obligations to animals.

Although history seems to point the origin of animal ethics to the East, modern animal ethics emerged in the West in the second half of the 20th century. Modern animal ethics is an important part of the revival of applied ethics, which advocates the application of ethics to practical issues in daily life, such as ethical discussions on dietary choices.

Research on Western animal ethics is booming. Most Western philosophy departments have set up practical ethics courses, and most of them involve the field of animal ethics. At the same time, the West has also published a large number of books related to animal ethics, further enriching the research content in this field. More importantly, these academic achievements have had a profound impact on people's eating habits. For example, more and more people choose to become vegetarians.

In China, teaching on animal ethics is not as popular as in the West. At the research level, even if some courses mention Buddhist thought, academic discussions on animal ethics are not as enthusiastic as those in the West. At the public level, China's current focus on animals is mainly on cats and dogs. However, compared with those animals that serve as human food, the number of these pets appears to be insignificant.

We hope that in the future, by strengthening the interactive communication between scholars, teachers and students from the East and the West, the East and the West can better learn from each other's excellent ideas and jointly promote the popularization and development of animal ethics.

On September 27, 2023, ring-tailed lemurs enjoyed a "special mooncake" meal at Kunming Wildlife Park in Yunnan. Photo by Li Jiaxian, a reporter from China News Service

China News Agency reporter: "Animal Liberation" is considered to be the beginning of the animal liberation movement. Since the publication of "Animal Liberation" in 1975, what new thoughts do you have on animal protection?

Peter Singer: The publication of "Animal Liberation" has caused widespread discussion, and there are inevitably some opposition voices. However, these objections are not enough to shake the basic ethical view I put forward in 1975.

What makes me feel relieved is that many philosophers from other ethical schools now agree with my point of view, believing that humans treat animals without morality. Kristen Colesgold, a professor of philosophy at Harvard University, a contemporary authoritative scholar of Kant's ethics, is one of them. In addition, the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum ( ). Of course, there are also some Buddhist thinkers, such as Master Shi Zhaohui, who also strongly oppose the behavior of raising and slaughtering animals.

However, over the past 50 years, the way humans treat animals has not improved greatly, and this question made me realize that I should be more pragmatic. Since ethical arguments cannot prompt most people to choose to live vegan, perhaps a more practical approach is to call on everyone to minimize the consumption of animal products, especially to avoid industrial breeding and factory animal husbandry products. This intensive breeding method is the most serious moral disaster, and it has extremely exploited the rights and interests of a huge number of animals.

Last year, I discussed these issues in detail in the newly revised book Animal Liberation: Now. The book will be released in the next few months, and we look forward to further promoting public attention to these issues.

On September 25, 2024 local time, Washington, Shanghai Longhua Ancient Temple and Washington Chinese Museum jointly held the "Zen Heart Fragrance, America Fragrance" Chinese vegetarian food appreciation event. Photo by Chen Mengtong, a reporter from China News Service

China News Service reporter: How do you view the impact of artificial intelligence on the world? Can artificial intelligence ethics cross species boundaries?

Peter Singer: The current discussion on artificial intelligence ethics is the failure to cross the species boundaries.

Artificial intelligence has had a profound impact on animals, and an obvious example is self-driving cars. These vehicles are designed to prevent collisions with pedestrians and large animals like deer, avoid damage to vehicles, and also try to avoid cats and dogs, because crushing such animals that are deeply loved by humans may trigger public opinion. However, will self-driving cars take the initiative to avoid smaller animals such as squirrels or birds? At the moment, there seems to be no evidence that they will do so.

Nowadays, artificial intelligence has begun to be applied in the field of industrial animal breeding. If it becomes popular, it may affect the survival of tens of billions of vertebrates. However, if the developers of artificial intelligence cannot uphold the ethical concept of caring for all perceived creatures, artificial intelligence is likely to only maximize the interests of the enterprise and completely ignore the current status of animals. For example, some companies may use artificial intelligence to increase breeding density.

I think the ethics of artificial intelligence should break through species boundaries and pay equal attention to the interests of all perceived creatures. However, the realization of this goal depends on many factors, including the developer's ethics, the attitude of government regulators, and whether consumers are willing to use actions to resist products that harm the interests of non-human animals.

On July 11, 2024, in the Innovation Operation Center of Beijing High-Level Autonomous Driving Demonstration Zone, staff introduced the principles and application status of "vehicle-road and cloud integration" to visitors through sand tables. Photo by Jia Tianyong, a reporter from China News Service

China News Service reporter: What vigilance should humans keep in the face of the rapid development of artificial intelligence?

Peter Singer: We need to develop clear and strict ethical norms for artificial intelligence. As I mentioned just now, these norms must cover the interests of all perceived creatures, even the AI ​​itself - if AI will really generate autonomous consciousness in the future, as some people speculate.

The ethical norms of artificial intelligence must fully cover a variety of ethical issues. There are widespread concerns that artificial intelligence may cause mass unemployment and concerns that it may carry bias against women and vulnerable groups.

If super artificial intelligence is really developed in the future that is smarter than humans, then it needs to be ensured that it not only protects human interests, but also takes into account the welfare of all living beings. Otherwise, super artificial intelligence may pose a dominant threat to humans, and even lead to the demise of all life on humans and even on Earth.

In view of this, people engaged in artificial intelligence development and operation around the world should strengthen dialogue and cooperation and work together to explore cooperation paths. Avoid vicious competition among enterprises or countries in the field of artificial intelligence, and put human beings in an extremely dangerous situation.

Respondent profile:

Peter Singer. Photo provided by the interviewee

Peter Singer, born in Melbourne, Australia in 1946, is a world-renowned contemporary philosopher and one of the founders of practical ethics. He was the president of the International Society of Ethics. He is an advocate of the world's animal protection movement and is also concerned about it. and one of the famous scholars who solve global poverty. Representative works include "Animal Liberation", "Practical Ethics", "Rethinking Students and Death: The Collapse of Traditional Ethics", "A World: Globalization Ethics", etc.