THE Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has come up with the country’s first Ethical Guidelines for the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Research and Healthcare to provide an ethical framework for the development of AI-based tools which will benefit all stakeholders. According to a document drafted by the Department of Health Research and ICMR’s Artificial Intelligence Cell, AI for health, to a large extent, depends on data obtained from human participants and invokes additional concerns related to potential biases, data handling, interpretation, autonomy, risk minimization, professional competence, data sharing, and confidentiality. “It is therefore imperative to have an ethical framework that addresses issues specific to AI for biomedical research and healthcare,” the guidelines stated. The adoption of AI technology in healthcare is growing in India. “These guidelines will provide the ethical framework for the development of AI-based tools which will benefit all stakeholders, including innovators, developers, patients, technologists, researchers, healthcare professionals, ethics committees, sponsors and funding agencies involved in research related to AI in biomedical research and healthcare,” he said.

However, AI as data-driven technology has many potential ethical challenges which include algorithmic transparency and explainability, clarity on liability, accountability and oversight, bias and discrimination, said ICMR Director General Dr Rajiv Behl. “The DHR-ICMR AI Cell has identified the need to develop these guiding ethical principles concerning artificial intelligence and machine learning-based tools.