Ethical challenges of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to provide huge benefits to healthcare. However, it also raises ethical issues that need to be carefully considered to ensure responsible use aligned with societal values. Here are some of them.

● Privacy and security of patient data. AI relies on large amounts of data to make accurate predictions and diagnoses, and these data often include sensitive information. It is imperative that healthcare organizations and AI developers take steps to protect data from breaches, always remembering that the patients are the sole owners of their data.

● Potential discrimination introduced by AI. If algorithms are trained on biased or incomplete data, they could suggest suboptimal care and even incorrect diagnoses for certain groups of underrepresented people in clinical trials, such as ethnic minorities. Algorithms must be carefully designed and controlled to eliminate the biases that have always plagued clinical research.

● Responsibility of AI Systems. When an AI system makes a mistake or causes harm, it is not always clear who should be held accountable: the developer of the technology, the healthcare organization that implements it, or the healthcare provider who uses it? While competent bodies consider drafting guidelines to assign clear responsibilities, physicians must in any case maintain a central role in the care pathway, seeking to adapt or correct AI proposals based on their own experiences and empathetic skills.

● Climate of distrust toward physicians. AI is likely to challenge the doctor-patient relationship for at least two reasons.  First is that some patients may perceive less human interaction when AI is involved in virtual consultations. Second is explainability, i.e. the difficulty of physicians in understanding and justifying the logic underlying decisions made by AI. Techniques need to be developed to make AI more interpretable and explainable so that decision-making processes are clear and trustworthy.