The World Health Organization warns of the dangers of artificial intelligence in the health sector

Artificial intelligence can revolutionize many areas of business – including the health sector. However, the World Health Organization is concerned – and fears treatment errors.

GENEVA – According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine can lead to treatment errors, misinformation, or misuse of data. For all the enthusiasm about potential applications of artificial intelligence, the United Nations agency on Tuesday called for the responsible use of these technologies.

AI applications such as ChatGPT, which access massive amounts of data, can help spread health information or generate diagnoses. The World Health Organization has expressed concern that the usual precautions against new technologies will not be implemented consistently in the case of artificial intelligence.

WHO: Responses may contain serious errors

Large speech-based AI models built like neural networks produce seemingly professional responses, according to the World Health Organization. “However, these answers can be completely wrong or contain gross errors, especially when it comes to health,” the organization warned.

According to the World Health Organization, AI technology can also be abused to disguise disinformation as seemingly legitimate content. The WHO also fears that AI systems will access sensitive health data without permission.

According to the World Health Organization, AI should only be used in the medical field when reliable data is available about the benefits of the technology. dpa