Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: No Exam

Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems have the ability to transform medical practice — and the legal regimes that govern it — in ways we are just beginning to understand. Over the course of the semester, we will examine this intersection of law, medicine, and an emerging technology that could radically alter the field through the introduction of new quasi-independent actors into the doctor-patient relationship. We will consider many unanswered questions in the space, such as who is liable when diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms cause harm to patients? Is there room for regulation when autonomous medical systems express data-driven bias? Can health care be the area that helps us understand how to regulate AI more broadly? Medicine is a field where traditionally things are forbidden until they are allowed, whereas AI is a field where everything is allowed until it is forbidden. As a reading group, we will discuss how we might mesh those two approaches and bring out the best in each.

Note: This reading group will meet on the following dates: 1/26, 2/9, 2/23, 3/9, 3/23, 4/6.