Ethical Challenges to the Adoption of AI in Healthcare: A Review

Abstract

There are few comprehensive summaries of the ethical challenges associated with the adoption of artificial intelligence in healthcare. This review utilizes a systematic search focused on identifying the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of artificial intelligence in healthcare, highlighting the diversity of ethical challenges and the complex interactions between practical challenges and ethics issues. For example, the quality of the data upon which artificial intelligence models are developed relates to several ethics principles, as does the issue of gaining user trust. Importantly, there is also the difficulty of achieving the right balance between the discussed principles, since one might not be able to maximize one principle without having to sacrifice another. For example, maximizing privacy might require minimizing data collection from patients, which might negatively affect beneficence. As such, this review highlights the variety and complexity of ethical issues associated with artificial intelligence implementation in healthcare.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence; digital ethics; digital health; machine learning.