Did you know, The New York Times, Washington Post, Reuters, and more rely on artificial intelligence to write? Not just this, but artificial intelligence can hear, speak and even smell! Researchers are developing AI models that will detect illnesses -- just by smelling a human's breath. Market research is aided by AI tools that track human emotions. Initially, AI was assumed to eliminate human intervention in repetitive tasks that lack decision-making like customer service, data entry, etc.

AI has the potential to revolutionize many areas of healthcare. Radiology, dermatology, and ophthalmology are some of the areas most likely to be impacted in the near future, and they have received significant attention from the broader research community. But AI techniques are now also starting to be used in in vitro fertilization (IVF), in particular for selecting which embryos to transfer to the woman. The contribution of AI to IVF is potentially significant, but must be done carefully and transparently, as the ethical issues are significant, in part because this field involves creating new people. We first give a brief introduction to IVF and review the use of AI for embryo selection. We discuss concerns with the interpretation of the reported results from scientific and practical perspectives. We then consider the broader ethical issues involved. We discuss in detail the problems that result from the use of black-box methods in this context and advocate strongly for the use of interpretable models. Importantly, there have been no published trials of clinical effectiveness, a problem in both the AI and IVF communities, and we therefore argue that clinical implementation at this point would be premature. Finally, we discuss ways for the broader AI community to become involved to ensure scientifically sound and ethically responsible development of AI in IVF.

In January of 2019 Smart Dubai launched the city's official principles and guidelines for the ethical implementation of AI. What truly makes Dubai's approach to AI unique is our city-government launched AI Ethics Self-Assessment Toolkit – which allows anyone implementing AI to self-assess their performance against a set of criteria which when taken together assure an ethical approach. The process uses the data from the toolkit to create a positive feedback loop with those using and developing AI. Express Computer spoke to H.E. Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General, Smart Dubai and CEO, Smart Dubai Data. What potential do you see in AI for governance and happiness?