Health
AI: Doctors risk being sued if tools go wrong, while companies are “shielded,” report warns
Key Points
Doctors are being left exposed to legal claims by a “widening gulf” between the law and the rapidly changing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has warned. In its report Closing the AI Liability Gap,1 the medical defence organisation said that doctors and the NHS were currently expected to absorb all legal responsibility for AI use in healthcare, while AI companies were “shielded.”Under
Doctors are being left exposed to legal claims by a “widening gulf” between the law and the rapidly changing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, the Medical Protection Society (MPS) has warned.In its report Closing the AI Liability Gap,1 the medical defence organisation said that doctors and the NHS were currently expected to absorb all legal responsibility for AI use in healthcare, while AI companies were “shielded.”Under the current legislative framework doctors could be held wholly liable if an AI suggestion turns out to be wrong and they have followed it, said the MPS. At the same time, if doctors “reject an AI output and things go wrong, there is a real and significant risk that they could face allegations of negligence.”As AI systems are not clearly defined as “products,” manufacturers and suppliers may not face the same consequences that apply when a defective product is found to have...