The increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) based systems, often based on data collected over the internet, has stirred many human rights discussions. In particular in Europe, political processes have started to look further into the regulation of AI. The area of health is considered an important field for the development and use of AI. Medical data and online applications have the potential to support improved health outcomes and – as a result – wider socio-economic benefits by enhancing our ability to predict and diagnose diseases and track their spread. But they also run the risk of exacerbating existing inequalities and eroding privacy.
Privacy, non-discrimination and human dignity are just a few examples of the fundamental human rights put at risk by the development of online apps to track health or infection. Such concerns became ever more visible amidst discussions around the use of (online) data to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
While medical data are a crucial component of healthcare research, the current digital landscape may be ill-equipped to accommodate global cooperation mechanisms and exchange health data on such a large scale. As the development of AI systems progresses, they demand ever more sensitive personal data to train their algorithms. Data collected over the internet might suffer from a strong selection bias by covering only parts of the population with access to the internet and willing to share their data. This raises questions about the quality of data used for health-related AI systems, particularly in such data is gathered from the internet, mobile phones or inputted by the general public rather than medical specialists.
This open forum addresses the following questions: • How should governments further regulate the use of AI in high-risk areas, such as health? Would different standards be needed for different applications e.g. diagnostics vs tracking infection? • How can we maintain privacy while encouraging innovative solutions to promote and protect public health? How can informed consent be guaranteed when health related data are collected and used over smart phones? • What safeguards are needed to make sure that the principle of non-discrimination is upheld? • How can we ensure that AI applications are trained on accurate and reliable data?
