Constance Li
Design animal-safe policies for autonomous vehicles
Sentient Futures
Bio
I am the Executive Director of Sentient Futures, a field building nonprofit focused on shaping the future to go well for all sentient beings, including animals and artificial minds. We run fellowships, conferences, a large Slack community, a newsletter, and a project incubator.
My background is in animal welfare field building and strategy. I previously co founded Hive, another nonprofit focused on animal welfare. My current interests sit at the intersection of AI systems, real world deployment, and neglected harms to animals. I am particularly interested in early norm setting and policy precedents in emerging technologies.
Mentee must-haves/nice-to-haves
Must haves
- High independence and follow through.
- Comfort reaching out to experts and stakeholders directly.
- Ability to comfortably understand technical systems and corporate incentives in an emerging market.
Nice to haves
- Familiarity with autonomous vehicles, robotics, computer vision, vehicle/road safety.
- Experience with policy, corporate advocacy, or standards setting.
- An existing network of useful connections such as anyone that works in the AV industry
Mentee role
Mentees will do the core project work and I will mainly play an advising role. Example tasks include:
- Researching AV perception, planning, and safety constraints related to animals.
- Interviewing engineers, safety experts, or policymakers.
- Mapping existing laws or norms, for example bird protections, that could provide leverage.
- Stress testing proposed asks for technical feasibility and downside risks.
- Drafting policy language, technical proposals, or transparency commitments.
- Writing op-eds or making targeted pitches to journalists.
- Helping design or run a small convening, hackathon, or structured ideation process.
Questions for applicants
- What do you think is the best first ask for an autonomous vehicle company to adopt to improve animal safety, and why? (you can define best however you like)
Mentor-led project
Animal Safety Policies for Autonomous Vehicles
This research-focused project will actively contribute to efforts to engage with autonomous vehicle (AV) companies with the goal of reducing harm to animals through changes in policy, system training, transparency, and/or vehicle design.
The immediate context is a recent incident in San Francisco in which a Waymo vehicle caused the death of a cat named KitKat. The incident has generated media attention and created a narrow window to push for precedent-setting corporate policies that treat animal safety as an explicit design objective. Autonomous vehicles are one of the few commercial AI systems operating at scale in the physical world. Influencing their approach to animal safety could both reduce direct harm and establish norms for how AI systems account for animal welfare more broadly.
The project is at an early to mid stage. The primary role of the mentee will be to provide rigorous research and analysis support, which may include mapping technical constraints, identifying feasible intervention points, and evaluating tradeoffs. There are already a small number of engaged stakeholders, and the research produced will help inform ongoing conversations and advocacy. That said, there is also plenty of room for the mentee to take on coordination or leadership responsibilities if they are well suited to it and interested. They can also be creative and host a hackathon or RFP to crowdsource ideas.
The main goal during the incubator is to identify the most realistic and high leverage initial ask that could lead to meaningful harm reduction, or at minimum formal recognition of animal safety as a legitimate consideration in AV system design.
Expected outputs may include:
- A clear analysis of how current AV systems detect and respond to animals.
- A short list of concrete policy or product changes ranked by feasibility and impact.
- A draft voluntary animal safety policy or standard for AV companies.
- Briefing materials for companies, journalists, or policymakers.
- Providing research support as needed for existing efforts.
- Optional coordination of expert interviews, hackathons, or a structured RFP