In AI-for-Healthcare We Trust? Ethical Determinants of Trustworthy AI-for-Healthcare

Trust is a basic fact of our social life, one of the elements within which we live our daily lives, and the complete absence of which would make it impossible and crippling. In a world that is overwhelmingly uncertain and complex, trust is an essential mechanism for absorbing that complexity. To trust is to express reassurance and confidence in a person, thing or institution that is expected to behave or function well or to happen as intended; that is, trust is about faith in expectations. But trust also implies the acceptance of certain risks, although trust is not unconditional. Today we have great expectations and many uncertainties regarding the development of artificial intelligence in the field of healthcare. Therefore, trust is a crucial and determining element in the acceptance and social appropriation of technologies, such as AI for Health. Following Starke et al (2021) we highlight the “intentional” character of AI-for-Healthcare and that such intentionality is strongly dependent on ethical aspects by design such as reliability/no-harm (including avoidance of bias), competence/beneficence, privacy, control/autonomy, equity, and explainability (to the extent possible). These ethical determinants of trustworthy in AI-for-Healthcare will be explored with regard to the success or not of digital contact tracing tools in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.