Healthcare providers to join US plan to manage AI risks - White House

Oscar Health

14/12/2023 14:00

By Andrea Shalal
       WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Twenty-eight healthcare
companies, including CVS Health   CVS.N , are signing U.S.
President Joe Biden's voluntary commitments aimed at ensuring
the safe development of artificial intelligence (AI), a White
House official said on Thursday.
    The commitments by healthcare providers and payers follow
those of 15 leading AI companies, including Google, OpenAI and
OpenAI partner Microsoft  MSFT.O  to develop AI models
responsibly.
    Biden's government is pushing to set parameters around AI as
it makes rapid gains in capability and popularity while
regulation remains limited.
    "The administration is pulling every lever it has to advance
responsible AI in health-related fields," the White House
official said, adding AI carried enormous potential to benefit
patients, doctors and hospital staff, if managed responsibly.
    Biden issued an executive order on Oct. 30 requiring
developers of AI systems that pose risks to U.S. national
security, the economy, public health or safety to share the
results of safety tests with the government before releasing
them to the public.
    Providers signing the commitments include Oscar  OSCR.N ,
Curai, Devoted Health, Duke Health, Emory Healthcare and
WellSpan Health, the White House official said in a statement.
    "We must remain vigilant to realize the promise of AI for
improving health outcomes," the official said. "Without
appropriate testing, risk mitigations and human oversight,
AI-enabled tools used for clinical decisions can make errors
that are costly at best - and dangerous at worst."
    Absent proper oversight, diagnoses by AI can be biased by
gender or race, especially when AI is not trained on data
representing the population it is being used treat, the official
said.
    The principles behind the administration plan call for
companies to inform users whenever they receive content that is
largely AI-generated and not reviewed or edited by people, and
to monitor and address harms that applications might cause.
    Companies that sign the commitments pledge to develop AI
uses responsibly, including solutions that advance health
equity, expand access to care, make care affordable, coordinate
care to improve outcomes, reduce clinician burnout and otherwise
improve the experience of patients.    

 (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by William Mallard)
 ((andrea.shalal@tr.com; +1 202-815-7432;))