AI And Animals: New Documentary Warns Of 'Factory Farming 2.0'

A new documentary examines how AI could either “supercharge” the animal protection movement or significantly worsen welfare to create “factory farming 2.0.”

AI & Animals argues that AI could either revolutionize or worsen conditions for farmed animals, and that there is a “limited window of time” in which to pick an outcome.

AI & Animals highlights how the global debate over large language models (LLMs) has yet to explore what the technology could mean for animal welfare.

The film predicts one potential “nightmare future” where LLMs perpetuate speciesism, and where millions of animals are farmed in increasing density without human oversight. However, AI & Animals also predicts how AI could decode animals’ speech, monitor and prevent diseases, protect wildlife, and end animal testing.

The film features the philosophers Peter Singer (Animal Liberation), Jonathan Birch (The Edge of Sentience), and Jeff Sebo (Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves), of Princeton University, the London School of Economics, and NYU, respectively.

‘The stakes could not be higher’

AI & Animals is produced by the American nonprofit Animal Ethics. It is directed by Alba García Bernal and Oscar Horta, filmed and edited by Xiana Castro, and narrated by voice actor Samantha Damiano, who worked on 2025’s Seantience.

The new film’s key takeaway is that the values humanity embeds into AI now could significantly shape its long-term impact, and that aligning LLMs with consideration for non-human animals could pre-emptively reduce future suffering.

“The stakes could not be higher. If we don’t start working on this right away, it may soon be too late to make a difference,” Damiano says in AI & Animals. “Animals need us to take this task seriously. Not next decade, not in a few years, but now.”

You can watch AI & Animals in full here, and on the Plant Based News (PBN) YouTube channel here. Learn more about the film’s participants and crew here.

‘The promises of planet-saving tech remain hollow’

Photo shows a wall of cages with battery hens in. A new documentary has warned that AI technology and LLMs could either revolutionize animal welfare or worsen factory farming conditions — Adobe Stock AI is already under fire for its negative impact on work and the environment, but *Animals & AI* argues that the technology’s potential to impact factory farming has not yet been fully explored

Goldman Sachs has linked AI to up to 10,000 job losses per month in 2025 across the most exposed sectors in the US, as reported by Reuters. In January, AI accounted for seven percent of planned layoffs. The UK is losing more jobs to AI than are being created, and more than 25 percent of workers fear losing their jobs to AI by 2030.

While some tech companies claim that AI technology could help to mitigate the climate crisis, a recent report by a collective of nonprofits did not find a single example of popular LLM tools, such as Gemini or Copilot, making a positive impact.

Ketan Joshi, Independent climate and energy analyst, said, “The promises of planet-saving tech remain hollow, while AI data centres breathe life into coal and gas every day. These claims of climate benefit are unjustified and overhyped, and could cover up irreversible damage being done to communities and society.”