An AI ethics reading list for bioacoustics

There are many ethical dimensions of AI. We work on “Bioacoustic AI” – we connect automated sound analysis to ecosystems and to the lives of many animals. So it’s important to take some time to consider our values, our ethical starting points, and perhaps especially the values that we “accidentally” encode in the systems we build and the strategies we take. Technology is never neutral.

The Bioacoustic AI consortium held a discussion on AI and ethics, at our Paris meeting in November 2025. From there we would like to share a reading list of articles that we recommend.

First, some suggestions of high relevance:

• Varoquaux, Luccioni, & Whittaker (2025). “Hype, Sustainability, and the Price of the Bigger-is-Better Paradigm in AI”
• Parker (2025). “The Planetization of Machine Listening” 
• Messeri et al (2024) “Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research“

And for further reading:

• Birhane et al (2022). “The values encoded in machine learning research”
• Cañas et al (2025). “Artificial Intelligence for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, a view from Colombia” (Note: available in both Spanish and English)
• Kapoor and Narayanan (2023). “Leakage and the reproducibility crisis in machine-learning-based science”
• Longdon, J. (2020). “Environmental data justice”
• Reynolds et al (2025). “The potential for AI to revolutionize conservation: a horizon scan” (see section “Negative consequences”) 
• Rohde et al (2024). “Broadening the perspective for sustainable artificial intelligence: sustainability criteria and indicators for Artificial Intelligence systems“