About
This research program is led by CAIDE Deputy Director Simon Coghlan and Professor Christine Parker from Melbourne Law School and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S). It operates in collaboration with the ADM+S's ADM, Ecosystems and Multispecies Relationships project.
Powerful emerging technologies such as AI can have significant effects on nonhuman animals, for good and ill. AI could be used to improve veterinary medicine and animal welfare. However, LLMs and image generators can spread misinformation and negative portrayals of animals, and AI could be used to intensify farming operations or poach endangered species. This research explores AI and other emerging innovations, such as lab grown meat, and the ethical questions they raise for animals.
People
Our team comprises interdisciplinary researchers across law, philosophy and more.
Dr Simon Coghlan is a moral philosopher and former veterinarian. He is Deputy Director of CAIDE and a Senior Lecturer in Digital Ethics in the School of Computing and Information Systems. Simon's research in digital ethics currently includes a focus on companion and care robots for older people and other groups, on animal-computer interaction, and on digital technologies in healthcare and public health. He has interests in applied ethics of various types, including conservation ethics, animal ethics, and health ethics.
Professor Christine Parker is a Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne and a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society. She teaches and researches legal ethics, corporate regulation, animal law and food law and policy.
Dr John Goris, Early Career Researcher at Macquarie University. John is a philosopher whose doctorate was on the intersection of philosophy of work, Marxism and animals. There, he presented an original account of alienation that extended to animals and showed how capitalism systematically produces this alienation. His research interests have since broadened to include X-Phi, bioethical issues arising for animal laboratory technicians and ethical dilemmas raised by lab-grown meat.
Dr Lev (Leo) Bromberg, Lecturer of Law at La Trobe University. Leo is a socio-legal scholar whose research focuses on the governance of emerging technologies (such as AI) and animal protection regulation. Leo’s doctoral thesis, completed in April 2025, evaluated the legitimacy of Australia’s farmed animal welfare standards using an original normative framework for evaluating regulatory initiatives — the multi-species account of law and policy.
Dr Sarah Webber, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the School of Computing and Information Systems. Sarah is an interaction design researcher. Her research spans human-computer action and animal-computer interaction, at the intersection of digital design, public‐interest technology, and community‐centred IT services. She leads research in digital nature engagement and human-animal relationships drawing on ecological and animal-centred design approaches.
Publications
Webber, S., Carter, M., Smith, W., & Vetere, F. (2017). Interactive technology and human–animal encounters at the zoo. International journal of human-computer studies, 98, 150-168.
Webber, S., Carter, M., Sherwen, S., Smith, W., Joukhadar, Z., & Vetere, F. (2017, May). Kinecting with orangutans: Zoo visitors' empathetic responses to animals' use of interactive technology. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 6075-6088).
Coghlan, S., Webber, S., & Carter, M. (2021). Improving ethical attitudes to animals with digital technologies: the case of apes and zoos. Ethics and Information Technology, 23(4), 825-839.
Webber, S., Smith, W., Carter, M., & Vetere, F. (2022, December). Watching Animal-Computer Interaction: Effects on Perceptions of Animal Intellect. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Animal-Computer Interaction (pp. 1-14).
Coghlan, S., & Parker, C. (2023). Harm to nonhuman animals from AI: A systematic account and framework. Philosophy & Technology, 36(2), 25.
Bromberg, L., Parker, C., & Coghlan, S. "Animals in the machine: why the law needs to protect animals from AI." The Conversation. October 1 2024.
Coghlan, S., & Parker, C. (2024). Helping and not Harming Animals with AI. Philosophy & Technology, 37(1), 20.
Coghlan, S., & Cardilini, A. (2025). Animal privacy and information technology. Philosophy & Technology, 38(2), 69.
Parker, C., Bromberg, L., & Coghlan, S. (2025). "Artificial Intelligence and Non-human Animals: A Multi-Species Justice Approach for AI Law and Governance" (Chapter 10). In Animal Law in Australasia: A Quiet Crisis. Eds. Jane Kotzmann & Joanna Kyriakakis. The Federation Press.
Montefiore, T., & Goris, J. (2025). The Puzzle of Lab-Grown Meat. Food Ethics, 10(1), 1.
Coghlan, S., & Parker, C. (2026). Beyond ‘Basic’AI-Animal Alignment. Philosophy & Technology, 39(1), 21.
Coghlan, S., Parker, C., & Lederman, R. (2026). AI ethics guidelines: Time to include animals. Science and Engineering Ethics.
Presentations
AI, Animals and Law Conference at George Washington University on 7 November 2025 (Parker, Coghlan)
Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies for Animals Workshop at Maquarie University on 23 June 2025 (Parker, Coghlan, Bromberg)
Dairy Cow Workshop at Deakin University on 14 July 2025 (Bromberg, Parker, Coghlan)