Artificial Intelligence for Sustainability

Biomimicry:
A Promising New Framework for Ethical AI

As a new study points out, “biological systems offer templates for intelligence that are efficient and sustainable” and offer a natural model for AI design.

Published 3 months ago | About a 5 minute read

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In an era where artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly but raising deep ethical and environmental questions, two researchers from the University of Akron (UA) have presented a new vision for the future of AI that is inspired by nature itself.

Dr. John Huss, professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy, and Dr. Peter H. Niewiarowski, professor of integrated bioscience in the Department of Biology, are co-authors of a newly published research paper proposing a biomimetic and ethically grounded framework for artificial intelligence. Published in June in Sciforum and co-authored by Dr. Paweł Polak and Dr. Roman Krzanowski of the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, “Towards beneficial AI: biomimicry framework to design intelligence cooperating with biological entities” seeks to build a multidisciplinary framework for biomimicry-inspired beneficial AI — enabling new forms of cognition, perception and resilience.

The collaboration began in an Integrated Bioscience Ph.D. class at The University of Akron, where doctoral students attended a lecture on artificial intelligence given by Polak and Krzanowski. Their presentation prompted further discussion among the four faculty — ultimately leading to a collaborative research project that bridges philosophy, biology, computer science and environmental ethics.

The paper revisits the biological roots of AI and argues for a reorientation of how artificial intelligence is designed and implemented. The authors advocate that AI systems rooted in biomimicry — the practice of learning from nature’s evolutionary innovations — would be inherently more energy-efficient, ethically responsible and ecologically embedded.

“Nature has been solving problems for 3.8 billion years,” Niewiarowski said. “From complex signaling in microbial colonies to the energy-saving structure of the human brain, biological systems offer templates for intelligence that are efficient and sustainable. These are models worth learning from.”

From natural intelligence to ethical machine learning

The use of generative AI has expanded rapidly in recent years — with Large Language Models (LLMs) by companies including OpenAI, Meta and Google becoming household names. OpenAI’s ChatGPT service alone receives around one billion queries each day.

Each generation of LLMs has become more sophisticated than the last, enabling companies to leverage AI’s quick learning abilities to tackle a range of sustainability-related issues — but its vast and increasing demand on resources including electricity and water have created issues of its own. In a recent Capgemini Research Institute report, almost half of executives admitted their use of generative AI has jeopardized their sustainability objectives by fueling their company’s GHG emissions.

The UA study argues many of the cons of AI could be addressed through a more intentional, “ecological” approach to designing AI systems and how they interact with users. It builds on recent research from University College London and UNESCO, which highlights simple changes to how LLMs perform calculations that could significantly reduce its energy and resource demand at scale.

“Current AI systems prioritize scale and speed, but often overlook sustainability,” Huss pointed out. “The human brain, by contrast, runs on the equivalent of a low-wattage light bulb — yet performs incredibly complex tasks. If we can better understand and emulate natural computation, we can potentially design AI that is just as capable but far more energy conscious.”

Beyond environmental impacts, the paper also delves into questions of ethics and human-AI interaction. The researchers argue that for AI to be genuinely beneficial, it must incorporate ethical principles such as empathy, cooperation and humility — traits found in natural symbiotic systems.

“We’re not just thinking about whether AI can do what humans do; we’re thinking about how it should behave,” Niewiarowski added. “Should it cooperate? Should it respect boundaries? Should it serve not just human needs, but ecological balance?”

The authors suggest that biomimicry can help address these challenges by serving as a guide for how AI might evolve in ways that are aligned with life on Earth. By examining mutualistic relationships in nature — such as symbiosis between species — the researchers propose models for “beneficial AI” that coexist with, rather than dominate, its human and environmental context.

“There’s a lot of talk about AI alignment with human values,” Huss added. “But we argue that alignment must go even further — to include alignment with ecological systems and planetary health.”

A natural framework for ethical AI

The paper’s findings exemplify the multidisciplinary approach of UA’s Integrated Bioscience Program — which brings together experts from across science, engineering and the humanities to tackle complex, real-world problems.

“At Akron, we’ve seen real innovation come out of this program — inventions, patents and new ways of thinking,” Niewiarowski said. “Our students are already working on applying biomimicry to fields like materials science and robotics. Applying those same principles to AI is a natural next step.”

“AI doesn’t have to be something that replaces us,” Huss asserted. “It can be something that co-evolves with us — something that learns from nature, grows within limits and contributes to the flourishing of all life.”

Polak, Krzanowski, Niewiarowski and Huss were honored with a Best Oral Presentation Award on this paper at the 1st International Online Conference of the Journal Philosophies in June 2025. Huss will also present the paper at the September Ethics & AI Conference at Warsaw University of Technology.