Sentient Futures Inc

Programs

1. Conferences and Strategic Events: Sentient Futures organized two major in-person convenings during the tax year. In October 2025 the organization hosted AI Animals & Digital Minds NYC a two-day unconference bringing together over 90 researchers builders and technologists for 18 lightning talks a keynote address and 22 attendee-led sessions on the intersection of AI and nonhuman welfare. In September 2025 the organization ran a first-of-its-kind AGI x Animals tabletop exercise in which 19 animal welfare leaders stress-tested strategies against hypothetical scenarios involving rapid AI advancement. One participating organization has since adopted the exercise for its own fellows program.

   $30,496 spent$16,886 earned by the program
   29% of program spending

2. Fellowship Programs: The organization developed and launched its first two online fellowship programs. AI x Animals is an 8-week course preparing learners for impactful careers at the intersection of AI and animal welfare covering topics such as precision livestock farming AI alignment and interspecies communication. Prioritizing Neglected Animals is a 6-week program exploring how to make the biggest difference for animal welfare now and in the future. Across the two programs over 100 participants drawn from backgrounds in technology law policy philosophy animal science advocacy and journalism completed the first cohorts during the reporting period. In post-program surveys a majority of alumni reported the fellowship was substantially more valuable than how they would have otherwise used their time and expected it to influence their professional work.

   $30,346 spent
   29% of program spending

3. Community Building and Information Sharing: Sentient Futures maintained and grew an online professional community of over 1,000 members via its Slack workspace which serves as the central coordination hub for researchers advocates and technologists working on future-oriented nonhuman welfare. The organization curated and shared career and funding opportunities from over 100 vetted source organizations facilitated introductions and collaborations between community members and organizations in the field and hosted regular virtual networking events. The community also served as the coordination space for multiple organizations developing benchmarks to measure LLMs propensity towards animal welfare. In addition the organization published a regular monthly newsletter reaching approximately 2,000 to 3,000 readers per edition with curated updates on developments across AI animal welfare and digital sentience.

   $29,802 spent
   29% of program spending

4. Research and Field Development: The organization assisted in facilitating the development of ANIMA Animal Norms In Moral Assessment a standardized benchmark for evaluating how large language models reason about animal welfare released in November 2025 and made publicly available on the UK AI Security Institutes Inspect Evals platform the first animal welfare benchmark in that standard evaluation framework. The organization sourced expert framing for the benchmark and supplied the volunteer engineer who completed the platform integration before handing off long-term maintenance to a dedicated successor organization. The organization also designed and began recruiting for a Project Incubator program matching experienced mentors with vetted early-career applicants to work on high-impact projects with the first cohort launching in early 2026.

   $13,133 spent
   13% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $103,777.