President Biden ordered the nation’s leading health agencies on Monday to develop a plan for regulating artificial intelligence tools already widely in use within hospitals, insurance companies, and other health-related businesses.
The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a safety program to receive reports of AI-related harms and unsafe practices — and take actions to remedy them. The directive was part of a broader order issued by the White House to create standards for the use of AI across the government.
Within health care, as in other sectors, Biden’s order seeks to strike a balance between controlling the risks of AI while also encouraging innovation that may benefit consumers. While it calls for efforts to fight discrimination and harmful practices, it also directs agencies to provide grants and other funding for research to support the use of AI in drug discovery and other domains.
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