The Future Is Now: AI and Health, Where Are We Going?

Abstract

DeepMind, the AI company of Google is using new tools that permit to identify changes in human DNA that cause disease. This research explores the connection among Artificial Intelligence and health, taking into account the information provided by Google DeepMind, AlphaFold and AlphaMissense. It seems to be a revolution: combining AI and health. There are many questions to be solved: are there any limits for science – and companies – on this field? Identification of proteins and the possibility of preventing (or why not, reduce or limiting) certain diseases seem to be the objective. There is a list of principles and objectives referred to the use of these techniques of AI described on the Google website. In particular, Google will not pursue, among others, ‘technologies that gather or use information for surveillance violating internationally accepted norms’ or ‘technologies whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights’. What are these internationally accepted norms? What are these widely accepted principles of international law and human rights concerning AI and health? So, the debate is open and this research tries to explore some key questions about that issue.