Luuk Stellinga

Wageningen University & Research

"Two readings of moving towards bio-centered AI: rethinking the computational logic of capture"

In recent years, 'human-centered artificial intelligence' (HCAI) has emerged as a dominant framing device in contemporary AI discourse. Alongside its widespread acceptance, the phrase has been critiqued for its tendency towards anthropocentrism, making HCAI ill-equipped for addressing the harms that AI technologies pose to nonhuman animals and other elements of the natural world (Stellinga et al., 2024). A response to this critique is to adopt a broader framing device that takes the well-being of the entire biosphere, rather than that of humans alone, as its starting point. I call this response a move from HCAI towards 'bio-centered artificial intelligence' (BCAI). In this presentation I consider what it might mean conceptually to move towards BCAI, presenting two possible readings with significantly different implications for dealing with the development of AI technologies.The first reading understands moving towards BCAI in terms of substituting the general goal of AI development: AI should not merely serve the well-being of humans, but should instead contribute to the flourishing of the biosphere as a whole. While this reading constitutes an important step towards recognizing nonhuman animals and the natural environment in AI development, I suggest that it is not ambitious enough. By presenting an understanding of current AI as predicated on a necessary reduction of the 'world' to computable models (Hui, 2021, Blok, 2023), a deep-seated anthropocentric logic is revealed. In response, the second reading of moving towards BCAI calls for a fundamental rethinking of this anthropocentric logic underlying AI technologies and their development. Exploring non-reductionist and world-affirming possibilities for AI development should accompany this move. This research contributes a conceptual understanding of what it might mean to move from 'human-centered AI' towards 'bio-centered AI,' as such shedding light on what is at stake in the framing of the ethics and politics of AI technologies.

Bio

I am a PhD candidate in the field of philosophy and ethics of technology at Wageningen University & Research. I am a member of the ELSA lab 'AI for Sustainable Food Systems,' a project that investigates the ethical, legal, and social aspects of artificial intelligence in the agri-food sector. I contribute to this project by developing a philosophical perspective on the relationships between human beings, digital technologies, and the natural environment. In my research, I explore connections between the areas of philosophy of technology, philosophical anthropology, and environmental philosophy.