technology and COVID-19
by Sean Slone
Exploring Artificial Intelligence AI has incredible potential in health care for diagnostics and treatment What is artificial intelligence?
ISSUE 2 2020 | CAPITOL IDEAS
Created by the state legislature in 2019, the Vermont Artificial Intelligence Task Force issued its final report in January. The state became one of the first to weigh in on the potential benefits and risks of a technology that is many things to many different sectors. The report cites a definition of artificial intelligence (AI) that comes from an expert group set up by the European Commission:
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“Artificial intelligence systems are systems (usually software) capable of perceiving an environment through data acquisition and then processing and interpreting the derived information to take action(s) or imitate intelligent behavior given a specified goal,” the definition reads. “AI systems can also learn/adapt their behavior by analyzing how the environment is affected by prior actions.” The Vermont task force recognized that AI is already impacting major sectors of the state’s economy, including agriculture and natural resources, transportation and manufacturing, law enforcement, government and services and health care. “In health care, artificial intelligence applications already examine patient X-ray and skin images to advise health professionals on whether particular areas warrant closer examination for the presence of cancer,” the panel’s report said.
AI applications are also used to process large volumes of patient data to optimize the diagnosis and care of patients and to better map the efficacy of medical therapies, the report noted. While recognizing the importance of AI to medicine and other sectors, as well as its potential impacts on labor, civil liberties and other areas, the task force ultimately decided not to recommend new state regulations of AI at this time, but to recommend a permanent AI commission to study and monitor its development. “We didn’t have enough information … and our conclusion is that we needed a longer term committee, something that could also delve more deeply into different areas that might look at regulation,” said Eugene Santos Jr., a professor of engineering at Dartmouth College in neighboring New Hampshire, who was appointed by the Vermont House of Representatives to serve on the task force. States like Alabama, New York and Washington have all established AI task forces or commissions that are in various stages of their discussions. Santos believes they can learn much from Vermont’s experience. “What we went through, I think the majority of the other states and organizations will also have to go through the same thing in just getting the landscape,” he said.
