AIGAH

AIGAH

AI Governance for Animals Hub
About

Bringing animals into AI governance across the EU and UK.

AI is already in the barn and in the water. Automated systems run the feeding and the ventilation on farms and fish farms, and the AI layer added on top – cameras, microphones, sensors – records every cough, every lame leg, every death. Almost none of that has to reach a regulator or the public: it stays with the operator.

The AI rules now being written in the EU and the UK barely consider animals. AIGAH works to change that. We map every opening for animals in those rules, draft the text to use each one, and hand it to the advocacy organisations that can file it in their own name. Our first year covers farmed animals in the EU and the UK.

Approach

AI governance for animals in three layers

We sort AI governance for animals by who holds the AI, because that tells you whom a rule has to bind. Labs hold the models. Operators – farms, slaughterhouses and fish farms – hold the deployed systems. Regulators and enforcers hold, or could hold, the evidence.

The models

What AI models must take into account – the alignment question

Held by

The labs that build general-purpose AI.

Today

The EU's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI – the GPAI Code – names “non-human welfare” as a systemic risk, with no definition, no test and no reporting.

What we ask

Criteria for harm to animals, and tests that labs run on their models and report on.

The opening

The GPAI Code's first review, expected in 2027. Its signatories include most of the leading AI developers.

Deployment

What operators must record and disclose

Held by

Farms, slaughterhouses and fish farms, running cameras, sensors and automated feeding and climate control.

Today

No rule says what these systems must record about the animals, or who sees it. The EU AI Act's high-risk list contains no animal context.

What we ask

Disclosure: which systems run, on what share of farms, how they are configured and what they found – against independently set indicators.

The opening

New EU farm animal welfare laws with “practical on-farm welfare indicators”: hens and broilers by the end of 2026, pigs by mid-2027. In the UK, the Animal Sentience Committee and the farm assurance schemes.

Enforcement

AI as the instrument for enforcing existing law

Held by

Regulators and enforcers, who hold, or could hold, the evidence.

Today

CCTV is mandatory in slaughterhouses across the UK and in Spain, and in England the official vet must view at least 15 minutes of footage a day – a small fraction of what the cameras record. AI that screens such footage exists, but where it is used now, its alerts go to the company, not the regulator.

What we ask

AI analysis of existing footage goes to the regulator, so that welfare law that already applies can be enforced.

The opening

The law and the footage exist already, which makes this the likeliest place for a first visible result.

One thread runs through all three layers: information about animals flows outward – to regulators and the public – instead of staying with whoever holds the AI.

Across all three: the hub

  • Research – where the rules leave animals out: the regulatory gap map and the evidence bank.
  • Policy engagement – the text to act on each opening: briefs, templates and consultation responses.
  • Field-building – connecting the organisations and people who can carry it: our London workshop, mentoring and the newsletter.

Read our theory of change →

Why now

The rules are being written now

It is far easier to shape a rule while it is being drafted than to change it once it is in force – and several of the rules that matter for animals are being drafted now.

AIGAH activities Policy windows

  1. July 2026

    Response to the EU AI Office's consultation on classifying high-risk AI, and a guide for others to respond within its scope. The guide →

  2. September 2026

    Talk at EAGxOxford: “AI governance for animals – why and how”. Slides (PDF) →

  3. October 2026

    The regulatory gap map goes live on this site.

  4. October 2026

    A submission to the UK Animal Sentience Committee on AI and the government's planned regulatory sandboxes.

  5. 30 October 2026

    Workshop in London with researchers and advocacy organisations, by invitation.

  6. End of 2026

    The European Commission's proposal on laying hens and broilers, with on-farm welfare indicators.

  7. By mid-2027

    The Commission's proposal on pigs.

  8. 2027

    The first review of the EU's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI (expected).

  9. August 2028

    The Commission's report on whether the AI Act's list of high-risk areas needs new ones.

Current projects

Regulatory gap map: EU and UK

Publishing in October 2026

A map of every point where EU and UK rules on AI leave animals out – around 30 intervention points, each tied to the instrument that can close it and to a way of acting on it. Built as a shared resource for advocacy organisations.

Operational criteria for “non-human welfare”

In progress – draft for expert review, autumn 2026

The GPAI Code of Practice names non-human welfare as an example of systemic risk, but offers no definition or assessment method. We are developing operational criteria to close that gap, for circulation ahead of the Code's first review, expected in 2027.

UK: a submission to the Animal Sentience Committee

Submission in October 2026

Laura Thomas-Walters, working with AIGAH, is preparing a submission that asks the Animal Sentience Committee to examine the regulatory sandboxes the government plans for AI and other new technologies – pilots in which existing rules can be temporarily relaxed – and what they mean for animals. The ask: that animal welfare be named among the protections a sandbox cannot modify or disapply. UK organisations can co-sign the submission or file their own version.

Co-sign or file your own →

EU consultation: high-risk AI classification

Submitted July 2026

The EU AI Office consulted on draft guidelines for classifying high-risk AI systems under the AI Act. AI failures in animal contexts – such as automated climate control in livestock housing – fall within the risks the guidelines address, yet the draft contains no livestock example. AIGAH submitted its own response by the 23 July deadline, alongside a published guide to responding within the consultation's scope. Four organisations and two researchers used the guide for their own responses. The final guidelines are expected end-2026.

Our response guide →
People
Dr Henrike Gätjens

Dr Henrike Gätjens

Founder and director

Hi, I'm Henrike. I founded AIGAH in 2026 to bring animals into the conversations and decisions happening now in AI governance. Before that, I did a PhD in the history of science, facilitated the Sentient Futures AI×Animals Fellowship, and helped Max Taylor with research for his forthcoming book AI, Animals, and Us (HarperOne, 2027). I'm based in Cambridge, UK.

Advisors

Advisors give their input in a personal capacity; AIGAH's positions are its own.

Working with AIGAH this autumn

Three mentees from the Sentient Futures Project Incubator, September to November 2026. Their projects – on the UK, on incidents and on the Philippines – have converged on the same first ask: transparency.

Get involved

If you work at an animal advocacy organisation

From October the gap map shows the openings in EU and UK rules, with briefs and templates to adapt and file in your own name. UK organisations can co-sign the submission to the Animal Sentience Committee. And tell us which consultations you follow.

If you work on AI governance

You do not need to become an animal person. Put non-human welfare into the risk taxonomy, the evaluation, the impact assessment or the consultation response you are already working on. Animals are the clearest test of whether a framework covers affected parties who cannot speak for themselves.

If you fund or research this field

Our theory of change sets out what we expect to change, how, and by when. We are glad to talk it through: hello@aigah.org.

Stay in touch as the field takes shape.

Occasional updates on our research, policy work, and events.

Or write to us: hello@aigah.org