What this publication covers
Examines how the misuse of AI systems can affect human health through control and manipulation, lethal weapons, and the obsolescence of work. It also discusses risks associated with self-improving artificial general intelligence, distinguishing current possibilities from existential scenarios.
How this reference can help
Use as a theoretical foundation for discussing the role of AI and technology in services.
Curated by Ricardo Martins
View the original abstract 🇺🇸 🇬🇧
While artificial intelligence (AI) offers promising solutions in healthcare, it also poses a number of threats to human health and well- being via social, political, economic and security- rela ted determinants of health. We describe three such main ways misused narrow AI serves as a threat to human health: through increasing opportunities for control and manipulation of people; enhancing and dehumanising lethal weapon capacity and by rendering human labour increasingly obsolescent. We then examine self- improving ‘artificial general intelligence’ (AGI) and ho w this could pose an existential threat to humanity itself. Finally, we discuss the critical need for effective regulation, including the prohibition of certain types and applications of AI, and echo calls for a moratorium on the development of self- improving AGI. We ask the medical and public health community to engage in evidence- based advocac y for safe AI, rooted in the precautionary principle.