Partnership on AI Awarded Funding from Moore Foundation to Explore Ethical AI in Healthcare

To realize the enormous potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems in the healthcare field, we need to advance understanding on questions such as accountability, equity, access, and transparency. As part of its mission to bring diverse voices together to advance AI to benefit people and society, Partnership on AI has been awarded a $400,000 contribution from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to convene experts and stakeholders in both healthcare and AI to explore how to advance responsible AI in healthcare. PAI is partnering with Duke University and The MITRE Corporation on this work.

PAI will bring members of the health AI research community together with AI technologists and civil society leaders through a series of facilitated sessions to identify priority areas where standards and norms need to be developed for future research, policy, and practice. The Coalition for Health AI, a working group of health and AI experts, will be a key collaborator in this work.

“PAI’s strength is our power to convene stakeholders across sectors to address AI’s biggest challenges. With this support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, we will bring people together who wouldn’t normally meet to develop a forward-looking agenda for responsible and ethical AI in healthcare,” said Rebecca Finlay, CEO at Partnership on AI. “We look forward to working with the Moore Foundation, Duke, MITRE, and the Coalition for Health AI on this work.”

“We believe that artificial intelligence and machine-learning have great potential to improve patient outcomes and support clinical decision-making in healthcare. However, there’s also a real risk of worsening health disparities and disrupting clinical workflows if these tools are not carefully developed with appropriate guardrails,” said Tommy Wang, Program Officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. “We’re pleased to support this project and look forward to seeing how this collaboration advances the responsible use of AI in healthcare.”

Partnership on AI has a proven track record of bringing together voices from across sectors and disciplines to identify issues, develop resources, and co-create solutions related to some of the most challenging questions around AI. Christine Custis, PAI Director of Programs and Research, will be leading this work on the Moore grant. Christine also leads PAI’s ABOUT ML initiative in which PAI’s multistakeholder approach has produced resources and pilot programs to bring machine learning system documentation practices at scale.

PAI is delighted to welcome members of the Partnership as well as members of Coalition for Health AI to these important conversations on the creation of standards and norms to promote the safe application of AI to high-quality healthcare for all.

Supporting Quotes

“Moving the field of health AI forward requires more than just technical ingenuity,” says Michael Pencina, PhD, Director at Duke AI Health. “This partnership will enable an urgently needed focus on foundational ethical issues—a focus that’s essential to creating technologies that genuinely benefit patients and their communities.”

“From Silicon Valley, to the South side of Chicago and all the rural space in between, AI should serve all of us,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, Chief Digital Health Physician at MITRE. “Our coalition hopes to build transparency and trustworthiness in AI by addressing algorithmic bias and bring greater equity to how models are developed.”

“AI has been a sleeping giant in medicine per its great potential to raise the bar on diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of illness. It’s an exciting time for innovation but, as stated in the Hippocratic Oath, we must ‘First do no harm,’” said Eric Horvitz, Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft, Board Chair at Partnership on AI, and cofounder of the Coalition for Health AI. “I’m excited about the launch of the Coalition for Health AI and the forthcoming convenings at Partnership on AI, aimed at ensuring that our AI systems for healthcare are safe, reliable, and equitable. We thank the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for its support of these important meetings.”

Please join our Health AI Community by opting into our mailing list here.