How should artificial intelligence be used in healthcare? A report from the first national Australian citizens’ jury on healthcare AI.
Stacy Carter1, Yves Saint James Aquino1, Australian Centre For Health Engagement, Evidence And Values (ACHEEV) Wollongong 1Australian Centre For Health Engagement, Evidence And Values (ACHEEV), Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Since empirical ethics was established, there has been an ongoing conversation about the epistemic and methodological relation between empirical findings and normative conclusions. One strand of empirical ethics—informed by deliberative democracy—draws on political philosophical claims about democratic authority and legitimacy to bridge the empirical to the normative. Deliberative democratic approaches support publics to consider evidence, deliberate about values and trade-offs, and make recommendations to decision-makers about what ought to be done. The Australian Centre for Health Engagement Evidence and Values has conducted multiple deliberative democratic projects in health. In 2023, we developed and implemented an ambitious new approach designed to strengthen the potential to make claims from democratic legitimacy. Thirty Australians, closely matched to population demographics, were independently recruited from all states and territories via random invitation and stratified selection to serve as jurors. All jurors worked for ≥24 hours over 18 days, online and face-to-face, March 16th—April 2nd 2023. They received expert information, asked questions and received answers. Through small group and plenary deliberation, they developed 15 recommendations in 10 categories from a blank page. To our knowledge this is the first time, worldwide, that members of the public have developed general recommendations regarding healthcare AI via a deliberative process. In our presentation we will show a recording of the jurors delivering their own recommendations, consider the values that underpin these, and reflect on the methodological and epistemic implications of the design of this deliberative process.
We gratefully acknowledge our co-authors in this project: Lucy Carolan (UOW), Emma Frost (UOW), Chris Degeling (UOW), Wendy A. Rogers (MQ), Ian A Scott (UQ), Katy JL Bell (Sydney), Belinda Fabrianesi (UOW) and Farah Magrabi (MQ).
Biography
Stacy Carter is Founding Director of the Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values (ACHEEV) and Professor of Empirical Ethics in Health at the University of Wollongong. She works at the intersection of three health system challenges: using artificial intelligence, screening and diagnosis, and consumer/community involvement, including via deliberative democratic methods.
Dr Yves Saint James Aquino is a physician and philosopher with expertise in applied ethics, empirical bioethics and philosophy of medicine. His current program of research focuses on the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of health and medicine.