Effects Of Artificial Intelligence In Medicine

In this article, we’re giving insights on the effects of Artificial Intelligence In Medicine.

The novelty of the study lies in the global vision it provides in relation to the social and aspects of applied AI in Medicine and Health. Until now there were only some partial classifications from the technological point of view and the operation of the algorithms that govern the systems.

Few human activities are left today that are completely unrelated to AI-based technologies. In the field of Medicine and Health, their implementation is enormous and their growth is vertiginous, with potentially very powerful results, which can greatly affect the human being and society as a whole, both in a positive way (basically, by a greater efficiency) and negatively (limiting free will, for example, or opening the possibility for autonomous systems to make vital decisions for people).

The latest advances in AI systems applied to Medicine and Health present extraordinary opportunities in areas of such deep social interest such as oncology, genetics and neurosciences, along with some no less extraordinary drawbacks and numerous questions that require a serene debate and rigorous about its implementation, before the unwanted effects are irreversible.

Rapid Development

AI applied to Medicine and Health covers a very broad field, ranging from the existence of software for the interpretation of medical images to its integration in practically all clinical and administrative areas. Radiology and different branches of surgery that used augmented reality devices and surgical robots have been at the forefront of this transformation. But today, AI reaches, in one way or another, all specialties.

In the classification proposed in the study, the researchers establish a continuum from the positive applications of AI in the field of Medicine and Health (software for decision support that improve the efficiency of diagnosis, for example), to “Negative” (the possibility of generating biological weapons against the whole of the population or a part of it), passing through what they call “controversial” (the possibility that insufficiently educated people decide on their own health or that of others, or tailor-made marketing on health-related issues).

The objective of the report on which the study is based is not to establish red lines for the implementation of AI in the field of Medicine and Health, but to submit the matter to a scientific, serious and rigorous debate that takes into account elements that so far have only very partially been considered in the existing literature.

There are aspects, such as privacy, legal responsibility or the effects on employment that have been or are being analyzed in relation to the application of Artificial Intelligence in other areas, such as social networks, electronic commerce, the automation of manufacturing processes. or autonomous vehicles. 

However, there are other aspects directly affected by the use of these systems in the field of Medicine and Health that, or have not been addressed (the generation of new forms of artificial life, the decoding of brain signals and the possibility of ‘Reading’ thinking, gene editing and self-experimentation, or decision-making about people’s lives or deaths by autonomous systems),

The classification presented also includes a new Technology Availability Scale that allows knowing, in a qualitative and easily understandable way, to what extent the systems are available, according to the information published in the scientific, academic, industrial and international sectors. media. It is a scale of 10 levels, ranging from considered “not feasible” to “available to the general public”, similar but complementary to the “Technology Maturity Scale”, commonly used in R + D + i areas. .

International Interest From The United Nations To The Recent WHO Statement.

Discussions similar to the one proposed by the study authors have been carried out in the field, for example, of AI for military use, including within the United Nations : Can a “machine” make the final decision to maintain or end a human life?

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a Declaration entitled ” The thirteen urgent challenges in Health for the next decade”, among which are included several directly indicated in the study presented in Seville. 

Specifically, on the control of ethical and social aspects in the use of new technologies, the trust of citizens in the new systems, the protection of the public against possible dangerous uses, equity and accessibility to medical resources by part of the entire population and preparing society for epidemics. 

According to the WHO, without a deep understanding of ethical and social aspects, technologies based on Artificial Intelligence could “harm the population they are trying to help.”

For the researchers responsible for the report, and also for the WHO, AI may bring with it some effects, controversial to say the least, that society is not currently taking into account. Technologies capable of “learning” on their own advance at a furious pace, without supervision or control. Most of the developments present, together with an evident and substantial potential for improvement, a slope of deeply disturbing and ethically questionable, even very negative, results.