Animal welfare in the world of digitalization: Computer Vision in the context of foundational structures

Abstract Computer Vision is an emerging technology within Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), combining camera systems with artificial intelligence to monitor animal welfare. While animal ethicists recognize its potential benefits, they also raise concerns about possible negative implications for animal welfare. This paper argues that addressing ethical concerns cannot rely on solutions targeting isolated ethical risks; rather, potential solutions must account for the technology’s embeddedness within society-wide structures. The focus in this paper will be on foundational structures, these structures concern how the world is experienced and understood, what is taken as self-evident. Over centuries, humans have increasingly delegated tasks to machines and standardized the world in doing so. This process has fostered growing trust in the outcomes of (digital) technologies. These developments have changed human experience and understanding of the world in various ways. Farmers, as members of society, are unlikely to be exempt from this trend. Therefore, reflection on Computer Vision must go beyond the farming practice and take into account these foundational structures that are currently reshaping society at large. Computer Vision examined as embedded within foundational structures demonstrates that ethical issues are also embedded within these structures, consequently, potential solutions must take account of them to increase their effectiveness.