Artificial intelligence (AI) will shape the destiny of humanity, but first humanity has the opportunity to shape AI. At times, anxiety about the former causes us to overlook the latter. We forget that artificial intelligence is going to serve the goals with which we're now programming it. Its implementation will follow the standards we now have the opportunity to set. This leaves citizens -- and those representing us in government -- with an urgent responsibility.

The joint effort comes as health systems are stepping up adoption and investment in data analytics, including predictive analytics and AI. In recent survey of CIOs, CTOs and chief analytics officers conducted by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, 84% said such technology will be extremely important to their organization's strategy over the next three years. Other healthcare sectors are investing in AI as well, giving rise to potential safety, efficacy and ethical issues as the technology is more frequently used. One year ago, FDA approved the first autonomous AI diagnostic system for sale in the U.S. The cloud-based IDx-DR software detects diabetic retinopathy in images taken by retinal cameras. And in February, Verily, the life sciences arm of Google parent Alphabet, launched an eye disease screening algorithm at Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India.