WHO Cautions on Use of AI for Health 

The World Health Organisation has called for caution in using AI – artificial intelligence-generated large language model tools to protect and promote human well-being, human safety, autonomy, and preserve public health.

LLMs include some of the most rapidly expanding platforms such as ChatGPT, Bard, Bert and many others that imitate understanding, processing, and producing human communication.

WHO noted that concerns that call for rigorous oversight needed for the technologies to be used in safe, effective, and ethical ways include the data used to train AI may be biased, generating misleading or inaccurate information that could pose risks to health, equity and inclusiveness; and LLMs generate responses that can appear authoritative and plausible to an end user; however, these responses may be completely incorrect or contain serious errors, especially for health-related responses.

Other concerns according to the WHO are that LLMs may be trained on data for which consent may not have been previously provided for such use, and LLMs may not protect sensitive data (including health data) that a user provides to an application to generate a response; and LLMs can be misused to generate and disseminate highly convincing disinformation in the form of text, audio or video content that is difficult for the public to differentiate from reliable health content.

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WHO recommends that policymakers ensure patient safety and protection while technology firms work to commercialise LLMs.

WHO proposes that these concerns be addressed, and clear evidence of benefit be measured before their widespread use in routine health care and medicine – whether by individuals, care providers, or health system administrators and policy-makers.

WHO reiterates the importance of applying ethical principles and appropriate governance, as enumerated in the WHO guidance on the ethics and governance of AI for health, when designing, developing, and deploying AI for health.

“The six core principles identified by WHO are to protect autonomy; promote human well-being, human safety, and the public interest; ensure transparency, explainability, and intelligibility; foster responsibility and accountability; ensure inclusiveness and equity; and promote AI that is responsive and sustainable,” WHO added.