Why Epistemic Justice is a Condition for Meaningful Human Control Over Medical AI

I explain it in a recent paper with Giorgia Pozzi, just published in Minds and Machines

I am very happy and proud that our paper ‘Epistemic Justice as a Condition for Meaningful Human Control’ Over Medical AI paper has finally been published open access in Minds and Machines. This is, I believe, an important article that shows how epistemic injustice in medical AI – already explored in Giorgia’s previous work – can affect meaningful human control. The positive spin is that my previous work on meaningful human control also allows to define the conditions to achieve more epistemic justice and control by relevant agents – in this case patients and healthcare professionals, rather than just expose and analyze injustices.

This is no small feat though as, as we discussed at the end of the paper, requires a structural approach addressing power and justice issues in the development and use of (new) medical AI. And this in turn requires a radical transformation not only at the level of technological development or the design of the human-technology interaction but also at the broader social, economic, and political level. As we write in the conclusion of the paper (spoiler alert! :D): “Social spaces and economic opportunities for experimenting with new innovation models must be created and protected, ideally through the collaboration of public universities, private industries, and local communities. Long-term research programs must be established and funded. Dominant visions about a future in which all problems will be solved by (AI) technology need to be resisted and contrasted, and the social and economic power of the big technological and political players supporting and pushing these limited visions must be regulated and governed.” I mention this as it is at the core of the efforts we have made in the last years with David Abbink (and many others!) with the FRAIM initiative in the broader context of creating a long-term research and policy agenda for shaping the future of tech-mediated work via transdisciplinary research. See also the recent initiative of Cristina Zaga to pressure the new Dutch government to “thoughtfully shape our digital future”.