Financial Times | Article

The conversation about whether AI will attain or supersede human intelligence is usually framed as one of existential risk to Homo sapiens. A robot army rising up, Frankenstein-style, and turning on its creators. Now philosophers and AI researchers are asking: will these machines develop the capacity to be bored or harmed?

3 Quarks Daily | Article

It has been a busy few months in the field of animal studies. As a hobbyist follower of this area of study, every time I turn around there is a new line of research to catch up on.

Another quite prominent researcher in animal cognition and its ethical implications, Jonathan Birch, popped up in my media diet unexpectedly as a guest on Sean Carroll’s excellent “Mindscape” podcast, discussing his latest book “The Edge of Sentience”.

BBC Sounds | Interview

“‘Open the pod bay doors please, Hal’.

That line from 2001: A Space Odyssey is the cinematic opening of a new technological era. One where machines not only learn, but are revealed to have become sentient. Hal, you see, the onboard computer, is not that keen any more on his one time masters - the humans onboard. Now a group of scientists have suggested that the masters of artificial intelligence - the tech companies pushing the boundaries back - need to think not just about how much and how fast these machines can learn, but also about whether a moment is coming that through learning, machines, computers, may develop personalities… sentience.”

Shepherd | Book recommendations from Dr Jonathan Birch

I’ve always thought of myself as someone who “cares about animals,” but I came to see that I was thinking mainly about mammals and birds and overlooking the vast majority of animal life: fishes and invertebrates.

The Times | Article

We spend a lot of time worrying about how artificial intelligence will overpower humanity. But what if the real problem is the reverse?

RealClearScience | Article

The proto-eyes are what really disturbed me.

For the past decade, medical researchers have been growing living, miniature replicas of parts of the human brain from stem cells. Such brain “organoids,” as they’re called, have always raised ethical questions. But when I learned that some of them had spontaneously developed optic vesicles—that is, precursors to eyes—I realized that the closer these experiments get to a real brain, the closer we get to creating sentient beings.

The Philosopher’s Zone | Interview

With scientific evidence emerging in support of the theory that octopuses, bees and other invertebrates may be sentience candidates, moral questions of how we should treat them become more and more pressing.

The Wall Street Journal | Essay

Scientists have created brain ‘organoids’ that may be showing early signs of sentience. Should that give researchers pause?

Knowing Animals | Interview

This episode features Professor Jonathan Birch of the Department of Philosophy, Logic, and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science. In this episode, we talk about his 2024 Oxford University Press book The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI.

SelfAwarePatterns | Review

This is the second in a series of posts on Jonathan Birch’s book, The Edge of Sentience. This one is on borderline cases of sentience in humans.

Birch looks at cases involving humans with disorders of consciousness, such as those in vegetative or minimally conscious states, as well as fetuses, embryos, and neural organoids made with human tissue.

IFL Science | Article

Sentience is a tricky concept to define, yet it has a profound importance for how we interact with other living things (and perhaps even things we should consider non-living).  

Philosophy Bites | Podcast

Recent zoological research has shown us that a wide range of animals are likely to have sentience. We don't know for sure. There is sufficient evidence to think that it is likely that, for example, lobsters can feel pain. What should we do in the light of this? Jonathan Birch of the LSE,  author of The Edge of Sentience, discusses this important question with Nigel Warburton. 

Sean Carroll’s Mindscape | Podcast

It's not immoral to kick a rock; it is immoral to kick a baby. At what point do we start saying that it is wrong to cause pain to something? This question has less to do with "consciousness" and more to do with "sentience" -- the ability to perceive feelings and sensations.

Our Hen House | Podcast

When we compare, particularly when we're talking about insect welfare or shrimp welfare, are we talking about sentience in the same, does it have the same meaning as when we're talking about cows? And if it doesn't have the same meaning, does that mean it's meaningless?

Nature | Review

Edge of Sentience is a masterclass in public-facing philosophy. Birch works hard and, in my opinion, succeeds in writing a highly topical book of deep philosophy. Any thinking person can profit from it, provided that they have a stomach for uncertainty.

Many Minds Podcast | Interview

Here, we talk about Jonathan's work at the nexus of philosophy, science, and policy—in particular, his role in advising the UK government on the welfare of cephalopods and decapods. We discuss what it means to be sentient and what the brain basis of sentience might be. We sketch his precautionary framework for dealing with the wide-ranging debates and rampant uncertainty around these issues.

Overthink Podcast | Interview

Among other things, Dr. Jonathan Birch and Dr. David Peña-Guzmán discuss the meaning of the precautionary principle and its application to complex moral issues related to the status of fetuses, nonhuman animals, and artificial intelligence systems.

80,000 Podcast | Interview

In this episode, host Luisa Rodriguez and Dr Jonathan Birch cover:

• Candidates for sentience — such as humans with consciousness disorders, foetuses, neural organoids, invertebrates, and AIs.

• How policymakers can act ethically given real uncertainty.

• Whether simulating the brain of the roundworm C. elegans or Drosophila (aka fruit flies) would create minds equally sentient to the biological versions.

• How new technologies like brain organoids could replace animal testing, and how big the risk is that they could be sentient too.

• Jonathan’s conversation with the Dalai Lama about whether insects are sentient.

• And plenty more.

BBC | Article

"We have researchers from different fields starting to dare to ask questions about animal consciousness and explicitly think about how their research might be relevant to those questions," says Prof Birch.

NBC | Article

Nearly 40 researchers signed “The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness,” which was first presented at a conference at New York University on Friday morning. It marks a pivotal moment, as a flood of research on animal cognition collides with debates over how various species ought to be treated.