Aaron Boddy
AI × Shrimps + Precision Welfare
Shrimp Welfare Project
Bio
Co-Founder of Shrimp Welfare Project - a charity that aims to reduce the suffering of billions of farmed shrimps (Charity Entrepreneurship Incubatee 2021)
Previously finished a PhD in AI in 2019, and co-authored GCRIs "2020 Survey of AGI Projects for Ethics, Risk, and Policy".
Mentee must-haves/nice-to-haves
Nothing in particular, but I really like Ambitious Impact's list of traits for Nonprofit Entrepreneurship, and would be keen to find mentees with those traits: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/y7hk2zABZ2nvqDs5z/who-is-a-good-fit-for-a-career-in-nonprofit-entrepreneurship
Mentee role
Broadly, I wanted to paint a picture of the kind of space I'm interested in - I'm keen for mentees to pitch projects within this space.
❓ Sample mentee tasks
Projects could range from pulling together a list of key stakeholders in the Precision Aquaculture space, or developing bespoke tech for welfare outcome monitoring.
Mentor support
I should be able to help provide feedback and context around projects in the AI x Shrimps space, helping shape direction. I can also facilitate connections, or provide ongoing accountability.
Mentor-led project
AI × Shrimps
An idea that came out of our 2024 Shrimposium was “Precision Welfare,” creating a workstream focused on: Navigating the evolving landscape of the industry, aiming to steer the trajectory while still in the early stages of transition, using Precision Aquaculture to monitor and optimise for welfare outcomes.
While Precision Welfare is still the primary way we expect to make impact in this space, we wanted to broaden the potential scope of this ambition to “AI x Shrimps”, to fit with the broader framing of “AI x Animals” and enable us to explore interventions outside of precision welfare.
Currently, we’re envisioning this as three interrelated projects:
Welfare Outcomes - Researching new Asks that represent "iceberg indicators" of shrimp welfare that are "outcome-based" (not Input-Based). It may not be possible to have a one-size-fits-all input-based Ask for shrimp farming, due to the complexity and variation of farming systems. Having “Iceberg Indicators” allows us to cover multiple welfare problems at once, without dictating how to achieve higher welfare - enabling the industry to innovate. We’re therefore working with the Welfare Footprint Institute on a research project to: - Conduct literature reviews on shrimp physiology, neurobiology, and behaviour - Evaluate candidate welfare indicators and monitoring feasibility - Collaborate with WFI researchers, Shrimp Welfare Project, and external partners - Contribute to at least one peer-reviewed publication
Precision Welfare - If “Welfare Outcomes” is about developing the Ask, then “Precision Welfare” is about implementing it[16]. Though we’re hoping that whatever Welfare Outcomes we discover are pretty universal across shrimp farms, we think a sensible place to start advocating for their implementation is in RAS Farms (they’re more technically advanced for monitoring, and maybe trying to set themselves apart in the market). While the WFI work is ongoing, we’re hoping to continue building relationships with promising industry folks in this space.
Certification Auditing - As discussed above, a promising application of the increased development of AI tools in the shrimp industry is the continuous monitoring they enable. We want to explore the willingness of certification schemes (and their auditing companies) to use/require continuous monitoring of their schemes with AI tools. We’re hoping for this to be a project in collaboration with organisations like Aquatic Life Institute, due to their existing work with certifiers.