Mapping Regulatory Gaps in AI Governance Affecting Animals (and: Building the Centre for Animal-Aligned AI Resource Hub)
- commitment
- 5 hrs/week
- format
- Research and writing · Creative project, product design, and entrepreneurship
- topic
- AI tools to empower advocates · AI’s nearterm impact on animals · Macrostrategy, philosophy, and cause prioritisation · Other topic within Sentient Futures scope
- open to mentee proposals
- Yes, with the right mentee
The project
I have two projects, listed in order of priority:
Project 1: Multi-Jurisdictional AI Governance Gap Analysis (primary) This project maps how AI governance frameworks across major jurisdictions (Canada, EU, US, UK, and China) currently address, or fail to address, AI systems affecting animals across agriculture, wildlife management, and animal research. It builds directly on my earlier Fellowship work developing a welfare-centered policy framework for AI-animal governance. The goal is to give animal advocates actionable intelligence on where and how to intervene in emerging AI policy.
Expected outputs include a comprehensive gap analysis report, a series of jurisdiction-specific policy briefs, and an advocacy toolkit with model policy language and engagement strategies. This is tied to an open policy window in Canada (Artificial Intelligence and Data Act died on paper in 2025. No successor legislation introduced.)
Project 2: Centre for Animal-Aligned AI Resource Hub This is a field-building project to develop the public resource hub hosted at animalalignedai.org. It is organized around two zones. The first aggregates AI governance and AI safety research from across the industry alongside our own published research, serving those who need deeper grounding in the regulatory and technical landscape. The second is built for animal nonprofits and advocates, focused on building AI literacy and providing practical tools and strategies to help organizations use AI to amplify their work and further the cause, with animals' interests kept at the center. This project is at an earlier, more open stage, leaving room for a mentee to help shape its structure and content strategy.
Expected outputs include curated research summaries, practical AI literacy resources and tool guides for nonprofits, an aggregated library of governance and safety research, accessible explainer content, and a coherent information architecture spanning both zones.
The mentee's role
For Project 1, a mentee could contribute to legal and policy document collection and coding across jurisdictions, help build the gap taxonomy, support expert consultation logistics and note-taking, draft sections of the policy briefs or toolkit, and help develop the overall report. This suits someone interested in policy analysis, comparative regulation, and translating research into practical advocacy tools.
For Project 2, a mentee could synthesize research into accessible summaries, curate and organize resources, draft explainer content, and help shape the hub's structure and content strategy. This suits someone who enjoys research synthesis, design, writing for a broad audience, and field-building.
Who I'm looking for
- Strong research and writing skills, with the ability to synthesize complex material and communicate it clearly
- Reliability and clear communication about progress, capacity, and timelines
- Familiarity with AI governance, AI safety, or policy analysis, or genuine eagerness to learn quickly in these areas
- Background or interest in animal advocacy, welfare science, or the nonprofit sector
- Experience working with Claude is an asset
Support offered
- Shaping direction and scope
- Expertise across animal welfare, non-profit and business leadership, campaign and project strategy, policy, communications, content marketing
- Feedback and refinement: reviewing drafts, sharpening arguments, and strengthening writing, while leaving mentees to own core work
- Introductions to my networks across animal advocacy, ethics and policy, veterinary and nonprofit sectors, and other domains
- Communications and knowledge translation: turning research into accessible, actionable outputs such as briefs, toolkits, op-eds, and hub content, drawing on my communications background
- Policy and advocacy context: grounding mentees in the regulatory landscape and how research connects to real advocacy opportunities
- Regular check-ins, clear milestones, and steady encouragement to keep projects moving
Bianca Del Bois
Centre for Animal-Aligned AI & Animal Alliance of Canada
I'm the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Centre for Animal-Aligned AI (CAAI), one of Canada's first nonprofits working at the intersection of AI governance and animal welfare. I bring over 10 years of experience in animal welfare and nonprofit leadership experience. This includes my role as Director of Communications at Animal Alliance of Canada, as founder of a Toronto area marketing and public relations agency, an 8-year background in veterinary medicine, and founder of Urban Tails Animal Support Network, a charity I started 10 years ago that provides accessible resources, free and low-cost veterinary care to underserved communities, and other surrender prevention services.
As a mentor, I'm looking to support two kinds of projects: AI governance research building from my own work on animal interests in Canada's AI legislation, suited to someone interested in policy analysis; and development of our public resource hub at animalalignedai.org, a field-building effort for someone who enjoys research synthesis and making complex ideas accessible.