More-than-Human AI

What would AI look like if humans were not the only stakeholders whose interests mattered?

Most AI assumes humans are the primary users and beneficiaries. Yet AI increasingly affects animals, ecosystems and the wider environment while also creating significant environmental impacts of its own.

This challenge explores how AI might be designed for multispecies futures and more sustainable relationships between humans, technology and the natural world.

Indicative potential partners

• Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Dogs Trust
• Interactive Technologies Institute
• Nokia Bell Labs
• Northumbrian Water
• The Wildlife Trusts

Illustrative research directions

• AI for biodiversity and conservation
• Multispecies participation
• Animal-centred AI
• Environmental sensing
• AI and ecological governance
• Sustainability and AI
• More-than-human design
• Environmental impacts of AI

Indicative reading

• Power, participation, and the dog internet

  S. Lawson, B. Kirman, C. Linehan

  2016. Interactions, 23(4), pp.37-41. doi:10.1145/2942442

• Things we could design: For more than human-centered worlds

  R. Wakkary

  2021. MIT press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/13649.001.0001

• Technology and more-than-human design

  E. Giaccardi, J. Redström

  2020. Design Issues, 36(4), pp.33-44. doi:10.1162/desi_a_00612

• What human-horse interactions may teach Us about effective human-AI interactions

  M.H. Jarrahi, S. Ahalt

  2025. Interactions, 33(1), pp.28-33. doi:10.1145/3778041

• Sustainable AI: AI for sustainability and the sustainability of AI

  A. Van Wynsberghe

  2021. AI and Ethics, 1(3), pp.213-218. doi:10.1007/s43681-021-00043-6

• Animals and AI

  L. Bossert, T. Hagendorff

  2021. The role of animals in AI research and application–An overview and ethical evaluation. Technology in Society, 67, p.101678. doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2021.101678

• Tagus Multispecies Atlas: Fostering affective multispecies interactions through counter-mapping

  K. Inglezaki

  2026. In Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C '26). doi:10.1145/3803784.3809274

If you are applying to join the CCAI programme, and have difficulty accessing any of the papers above, please contact us.