More than two dozen healthcare payers and providers, including CVS, Premera Blue Cross and Mass General Brigham, are making voluntary safety, security and transparency commitments to the White House regarding the use of artificial intelligence.
The commitments come two months after the Biden administration issued a sweeping Executive Order on AI establishing new safety, security and equity standards for AI.
"The commitments received today will serve to align industry action on AI around the 'FAVES' principles — that AI should lead to healthcare outcomes that are Fair, Appropriate, Valid, Effective and Safe. Under these principles, the companies commit to inform users whenever they receive content that is largely AI-generated and not reviewed or edited by people," White House officials Lael Brainard, National Economic Advisor, Neera Tanden, Domestic Policy Advisor and Arati Prabhakar, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in a blog post.
This announcement follows earlier commitments that the White House received from 15 leading AI companies to develop models responsibly. Those companies include OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Google and Amazon.
The organizations pledged to adhere to a risk management framework for using applications powered by foundation models — one by which they will monitor and address harms that applications might cause, the White House said.
"At the same time, they pledge to investigate and develop valuable uses of AI responsibly, including developing solutions that advance health equity, expand access to care, make care affordable, coordinate care to improve outcomes, reduce clinician burnout and otherwise improve the experience of patients," Biden administration officials said.
These voluntary commitments are part of larger private and public efforts to address the risks of using AI in healthcare.
Without appropriate human oversight, AI-enabled tools used for clinical decisions can make errors that are costly at best — and dangerous at worst, the White House noted. Other risks include AI-based tools that, if not trained on data representing the population it is being used, could result in diagnoses biased by gender or race.
The White House is also concerned about AI’s ability to collect large volumes of data — and infer new information from disparate data points — creating potential privacy risks for patients.
Under these principles, the companies commit to inform users whenever they receive content that is largely AI-generated and not reviewed or edited by humans. They will adhere to a risk management framework that includes comprehensive tracking of applications powered by foundation models in order to address and mitigate potential harms the applications might cause.
The companies also pledged to investigate and develop new approaches to AI that "advance health equity, expand access to care, make care affordable, coordinate care to improve outcomes, reduce clinician burnout and otherwise improve the experience of patients."
"Our healthcare system desperately needs AI to expand access to high-quality care. We at
Curai Health are going to push it forward thoughtfully," said Neal Khosla, the CEO of Curai Health, a company that signed the responsible AI pledge. "We are proud to be joining other leading healthcare organizations at the White House to commit to the thoughtful deployment of AI."
Our healthcare system desperately needs AI to expand access to high quality care. We at @CuraiHQ are going to push it forward thoughtfully.
— Neal Khosla (@nealkhosla) December 14, 2023
We are proud to be joining other leading healthcare organizations at the White House to commit to the thoughtful deployment of AI. https://t.co/nqGYkyDGQX
Mario Schlosser, co-founder and chief technology officer at Oscar Health, another company that signed the pledge, said in a statement: "Large-scale AI models are a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve healthcare. 28 of the most forward-thinking payers and providers got together to figure out how we leverage frontier AI models to drive the change we want to see in healthcare."
“AI presents unequaled potential for advancing health with new scientific discoveries, improved diagnoses and treatment of diseases and better systems that free our workers to dedicate their expertise to patient care rather than administrative chores,” said Craig T. Albanese, M.D., chief executive officer of Duke University Health System.
“But we recognize that AI also has the potential to be misused,” Albanese said. “By signing this pledge, we are publicly stating our commitment to work toward the better good.”
The 28 organizations are: Allina Health, Bassett Healthcare Network, Boston Children’s Hospital, Curai Health, CVS Health, Devoted Health, Duke Health, Emory Healthcare, Endeavor Health, Fairview Health Systems, Geisinger, Hackensack Meridian, HealthFirst (Florida), Houston Methodist, John Muir Health, Keck Medicine, Main Line Health, Mass General Brigham, Medical University of South Carolina Health, Oscar, OSF HealthCare, Premera Blue Cross, Rush University System for Health, Sanford Health, Tufts Medicine, UC San Diego Health, UC Davis Health and WellSpan Health.