Artificial intelligence can help tackle the covid-19 pandemic, but bias and discrimination in its design and deployment risk exacerbating existing health inequity argue David Leslie and colleagues. Among the most damaging characteristics of the covid-19 pandemic has been its disproportionate effect…
A team of medical ethics researchers are arguing that bias and discrimination within AI design and deployment risk exacerbating existing health inequity. The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities, and the uncritical deployment of AI in the fight against covid-19 risks amplifying the pandemic’s adverse effects on vulnerable groups by exhibiting racial biases. Although AI systems hold promise for vaccine discovery, diagnosis and prognostic decision support, research suggests that these systems can discriminate between different socio-economic groups.