“Governing the Rise of AI: A Unique Global Governance Challenge”  The rise of Artificial Intelligence as a general purpose technology exhibits characteristics of velocity and magnitude probably not seen in earlier major techno-industrial revolutions. The great upsides and severe downsides it generates are inextricably connected, requiring a complex governance effort to capture opportunities while minimizing risks and spreading the gains widely. The case of healthcare lies at the center of this conundrum with an abundance of use-cases ranging from diagnostic, prevention, to therapy. Because the AI revolution is a global phenomenon nested in the wider digital socio-economic paradigm, the governance effort will have to mobilize public and private actors as well as citizens internationally and transnationally in new and innovative ways. We will discuss possible pathways, solutions, strategies and challenges. Nicolas Miailhe co-founded The Future Society in 2014 and incubated it at the Harvard  Kennedy School of Government. An independent think-and-do-tank, The Future Society specializes in questions of impact and governance of emerging technologies, starting with Artificial Intelligence through its “AI Initiative” launched in 2015. A recognized strategist, thought-leader, and implementer, Nicolas has lectured around the world, and advises multinationals, governments and international organizations. He is the co-Convener of the Global Governance of AI Roundtable (GGAR) organized yearly during the World Government Summit in Dubai, as well as a member of the AI Group of experts at OECD (AIGO), of the World Bank’s Digital Economy for All Initiative (DE4ALL), and of the Global Council on Extended Intelligence (CXI). Nicolas teaches at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), at the IE School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid, and at the Mohamed bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai. He is also a member of three committees of the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethically Aligned Design of AI and Autonomous Systems, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard, and a Fellow with the Center for the Governance of Change at IE Business School in Madrid.

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have been around for decades. Yet a lack of access to large amounts of high quality data has historically limited applications of AI in healthcare. However, a more recent increase in the availability of data has created an opportunity to apply AI algorithms to improve patient outcomes globally. In low and middle-income countries, such data could be used to track disease outbreaks, assess drivers of infectious disease transmission and track drug adherence. While there is immense potential for the use of data, it needs to be integrated across different systems, harmonized and curated. Liberating data from proprietary information systems and breaking down the silos between clinicians and the data scientists remain enormous barriers in the utilization of AI to address global health challenges. Dr. Leo Anthony Celi has practiced medicine in three continents, giving him broad perspectives in healthcare delivery. He holds a faculty position at Harvard Medical School as an intensive care specialist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As clinical research director and principal research scientist at the MIT Laboratory of Computational Physiology (LCP), he brings together clinicians and data scientists to support research using data routinely collected in the intensive care unit (ICU). Leo founded and co-directs Sana, a cross-disciplinary organization based at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, whose objective is to leverage information technology to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. At its core is an open-source mobile tele-health platform that allows for capture, transmission and archiving of complex medical data, in addition to patient demographic and clinical information. Sana is the inaugural recipient of both the mHealth (Mobile Health) Alliance Award from the United Nations Foundation and the Wireless Innovation Award from the Vodafone Foundation in 2010. The software has since been implemented around the globe including India, Kenya, Lebanon, Haiti, Mongolia, Uganda, Brazil, Ethiopia, Argentina, and South Africa.

Technology & Health Seminar Series 2018-19  “Mapping and Repairing the Brain: Implications for Global Health” with Dr. Ed Boyden Synthetic Neurobiology Group, MIT Brain disorders affect more than a billion people worldwide. Yet cures are few and treatment options inadequate. Traditional ways of examining the brain, such as using an fMRI, have poor resolution and are unable to pinpoint the exact molecular changes causing disease. However, novel technologies are being developed that let scientist peer inside the brain like never before. This includes tools that allow cells and molecules to be imaged with nanoscale precision, as well technologies to enable the activation and silencing of brain activity with light. These technologies, while designed for the brain, also are starting to have impact on the fields of cancer, immunity, and infectious disease, and thus may generally help with the understanding and confrontation of global health challenges. Dr. Boyden is the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology at MIT, associate professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and was recently selected to be an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2018). He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain, and applies them systematically to reveal ground truth principles of biological function as well as to repair these systems.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has huge potential to shape healthcare for the better. However, it also creates ethical and legal challenges that we will discuss in this seminar. How do we ensure that AI technologies are safe and effective? What are the risks of black-box precision medicine? Who will be liable in the case of an incorrect treatment recommendation by an AI? How do we adequately protect health-related data? What is the impact of AI globally? In this seminar, Professor Cohen and Ms. Gerke will not only address these questions, but will also provide an overview of the meaning of AI and its current and future application in healthcare.