There is broad agreement about the need for the development and application of AI to be subject to ethical guidelines and constraints. Equally, there is today little dissent from the view that the way we treat animals should also be guided by ethical considerations. Within the field of AI ethics, however, there is virtually no discussion of how AI impacts animals, nor of the ethical problems to which these impacts may give rise. Self-driving cars that might encounter animals, autonomous killing drones that target animals, and AI systems now working in factory farms, are all examples of AI technologies that have real impacts on animals. We will describe what is happening currently, take a peek into the future, and analyze some ethical problems related to these AI technologies. The questions raised include:

– When a self-driving car hits an animal, who bears the moral responsibility?

– Is it morally justifiable to let drones kill animals?

– Is the use of AI in factory farming good or bad for the animals?

– If an AI technology will clearly increase the suffering of animals, should a developer reject such a project even if it is legal?

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