From October 2nd to 4th 2019, WHO convened an international consultation with participants from government, inter-governmental agencies, academia, civil society and industry to start the development of WHO guidance on ethics and governance for the design and implementation of AI in global health. Participants, including technologists, lawyers, health care practitioners, scientists and ethicists, were selected across WHO regions and contributed their expertise on the current and anticipated uses of AI technologies for health and the ethical considerations and human rights principles that should guide its use. The experts discussed different uses of AI, e.g. in drug discovery, clinical medicine, and public health, and how it is transforming these fields. They heard about various related initiatives led by international organizations and governments. Finally, they discussed pertinent ethical issues that arise with these use cases and advised on the format and content elements that shall be included in future guidance developed by WHO through additional consultations planned for 2020. Previously, in 2017, WHO and its Collaborating Centre at the University of Miami (led by Ken Goodman) organized an international consultation on the subject (see link to report under WHO publication). A special symposium was held at the World Congress of Bioethics Conference in Bangalore in December 2018. A theme issue of the WHO Bulletin will be devoted to Big data, machine learning and AI will be published in 2020.

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