Researchers say use of artificial intelligence in medicine raises ethical questions

In a perspective piece, Stanford researchers discuss the ethical implications of using machine-learning tools in making health care decisions for patients. Artificial intelligence is hard at work crunching health data to improve diagnostics and help doctors make better decisions for their patients. But researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine say the furious pace of growth in the development of machine-learning tools calls for physicians and scientists to carefully examine the ethical risks of incorporating them into decision-making. In a perspective piece published March 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the authors acknowledged the tremendous benefit that machine learning can have on patient health. But they cautioned that the full benefit of using this type of tool to make predictions and take alternative actions can't be realized without careful consideration of the accompanying ethical pitfalls.