The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence has published a report calling for stronger rules around the use of data in artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare technology.

Following a recent hearing on AI's role in disease control and the experience of countries that have used it in fighting the pandemic, the document came to two major conclusions - firstly that there is a need for regulations on the responsible use of public data, along with a cross-border infrastructure for sharing it.

Secondly, an oversight body is needed to take in representatives of various disciplines to ensure the ethical application and oversight of any data-driven health measures.

These reflected policy recommendations around the creation of mechanisms to make aggregated, anonymised data publicly available to support research and scientific modelling.

The oversight body would implement data safety measures to ensure personal data is saved and shared ethically, and there is sufficient accountability and accreditation for its use. The report stated that it should have the authority to check and accredit new data driven tools, discontinuing any that violate the ethics.

The group also demanded new regulations to facilitate collaboration among experts from different countries and disciplines, along with the sharing of relevant data.

One of the key problems identified in the report was that there is not yet a sufficient volume of data to support some AI tools, such as those using deep neural networks, as well as the fact that the algorithms are difficult to interrogate about their processes for making decisions.

Despite this, the group stated that AI can make significant contributions in the analysis of medical research databases, citing Google’s DeepMind division making structured predictions of proteins related to COVID-19.

Birgitte Andersen, chief executive officer of the Big Innovation Centre, commented: “Artificial intelligence can absolutely help us fight COVID-19 and future viral diseases, but for this to happen we must all become digital citizens and part of a wider data infrastructure.”

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