Can Cultivated Meat Take Off Before the Inevitable Tech Backlash?

[Judi Lynn]

October 3, 2024

Jon Hochschartner

I recently saw a software developer boasting on social media about his new artificial-intelligence program which allowed users to convincingly swap the face of one person onto another in a live video, employing a single photograph as a reference. When commenters asked what use this might have outside of financial scams or deep-fake pornography, the developer essentially shrugged his shoulders.

The response appears to have been so severe the developer has since deleted his post. Now, I’m sure there might be some productive use for the technology, but none immediately comes to mind, while a host of anti-social behavior does. I worry this sort of Silicon Valley nihilism will create a larger backlash against all technological development, including that which could genuinely make the world better.

For example, I’m a strong proponent of cultivated meat. If you are unfamiliar with the term, cultivated meat is grown from livestock cells, without slaughter. It provides a potential solution to a number of seemingly intractable problems. I’m specifically talking about the animal-welfare, public-health and environmental costs of our food system, which are enormous, when you begin to consider them.

The successful commercialization of cultivated meat would help reduce the number of aquatic and land animals we kill every year for consumption, which conservative estimates place at over a trillion. The amount of suffering this represents is almost impossible to imagine. To put it in a little perspective, only about 117 billion humans have ever lived, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

The more cellular agriculture replaces livestock farming, the more we would lower the risk of zoonotic diseases making the jump to our species and causing another global pandemic. For instance, experts are terrified avian flu, which appears to have begun spreading among humans, will do this. Since animals are removed from the process, cultivated meat would significantly decrease concern.

More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/03/can-cultivated-meat-take-off-before-the-inevitable-tech-backlash/