Our Secret Weapon Against Big Ag. With Thomas Manandhar-Richardson | Ep. 104

Today, we’re diving into how Artificial Intelligence is becoming a real game‑changer for vegans, for animal rights activists, and for animals themselves.

To explore this topic, I’m joined by Thomas Manandhar‑Richardson. He’s the Director of Research at Bryant Research and the Lead Data Consultant at Greener By Default.

I asked Thomas whether he thinks AI is becoming sentient — and what we should make of that idea. We also get into why AI models aren’t as bad for the environment as you been lead to believe, if AI modals have an anti-vegan bias, why he thinks AI modals are key to giving animal rights activists a leading edge against big Ag and much more.

He also gives us the best tips for using AI as a pro. If you want to access free AI training for animal activists, visit the link in the episode's notes.

Amplify for Animals, who offer free AI training to the animal movement: https://amplifyforanimals.org/

Bryant Research (where I am research director), a social science research consultancy exclusively serving the animal advocacy movement and alternative protein sector. In 2026 we will be offering AI consulting, data science and AI agent building services https://bryantresearch.co.uk/

Sentient Futures: the org I shouted out multiple times who put on "AI animals and digital minds" conferences, https://www.sentientfutures.ai/

"animal harm bench" a benchmark test that rated how animal friendly AI models are: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.04804

Cats Should Be Vegan!? With Billy Nicholles | Ep. 90 https://rss.com/podcasts/veganreport/2228910/

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Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay