Lunchtime discussion – AI and Ethics: The future is unethical

At a recent Melting Pot Lunch, I had the opportunity to lead a discussion on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health and care, ethics, and if the future is unethical.

Melting Pot Lunches are run by Kaleidoscope Health & Care. Kaleidoscope work with NHS trusts, charities, government departments and private sector organisations to bring people together to discuss new ways to overcome barriers to effective delivery.

These lunches are an opportunity to bring together diverse groups from across health and care to discuss a key issue relevant to a range of different perspectives – all over lunch and in locations across London.

The future is unethical?

I touched on a number of issues about AI, and AI in health and social care. This included:

• What is AI?
• The UK policy context
• AI in health and care, and
• AI ethics.

A key point I made was explaining what the ‘fuss’ is all about. We don’t have the need to talk about the introduction of MRIs for instance. So what’s so different about AI? At the heart of it, AI poses ethical challenges in a way that an MRI doesn’t.

I flagged the following key issues of:

• Transparency and explainability
• Data bias and fairness
• Data, privacy, and ownership, and
• The impact on health and care professionals.

You can read my blog on these issues over on Kaleidoscope’s website here.

This was followed by a wide ranging discussion touching on data sharing, broader digital tech issues in health and care, and privacy.

I’d like to thank Kaleidoscope for inviting me to lead this discussion on such an important set of issues.