Politics of AI & Health: From Snake Oil to Social Good

The project explores the intersection of AI, health and politics to support the development of governance, policy and the use of AI in health for the social good.

Background:

The potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to improve health and healthcare systems is considerable. While AI technologies have already enhanced health outcomes in specific applications, its impacts are much more widely felt. This is due to dominant techno-solutionist narratives which frame AI as a revolutionary technology for healthcare and a modern-day snake oil for a plethora of societal challenges related to health. Consequently, health and healthcare systems are being shaped by, and propagating, narrow socio-technical imaginaries about the further role of AI in health. As such, there is a pressing need to critically engage with the politics of AI and health, and to do so from an interdisciplinary perspective.

This need arises due to the speed of technological advancement, shifting transnational power relations, the opaque nature of AI technology and its propensity for bias and discrimination. Combined with dominant techno-solutionist narratives, we face considerable barriers in ensuring there is sufficient scrutiny, participation and governance of AI in health. Such oversight and regulation are vital if we are to minimise the potential harms of the technology, realise its benefits and best support innovation.

This research seeks to address these challenges by exploring the intersection of AI, health and politics through innovative interdisciplinary, multi-level and multi-actor perspectives. The project has two distinct, though complementary parts. The first focuses on critically engaging with the current and emerging policy, governance and political-economy around AI and health at a national and international level. Essential to this is grounding our understanding in how a range of actors engage with, resist, or co-opt AI technologies in health. Doing so foregrounds these actors’ agency and lived experience, connecting these to broader global processes in AI and health. The second part applies this knowledge by directly engaging in debates on emerging national and international governance of AI in health, using AI applications to improve public health policy making, as well supporting stakeholders in the development and implementation of responsible AI in health. This research draws inspiration from political science, human geography, policy studies, science and technology studies and policy informatics, amongst others.

The project aims to provide novel conceptual, empirical and policy perspectives to better understand and guide the shifting socio-political landscape of health because of AI technologies. The findings will act as a foundation upon which we can navigate the narratives of AI in health, and successfully move from snake oil to the social good.