Artificial Intelligence in Covid-19: Application and Legal Conundrums

Abstract

The current healthcare system needs strong support from new technology support systems like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning devices to help diagnose, analyze, assist, and prevent new diseases that are spreading in our world. The current international crisis that the world is suffering and witnessing is a virus contaminating and the spread which initiated as an epidemic but later declared by WHO to be a pandemic Covid-19. Corona virus has triggered a global challenge and has crossed boundaries in dismantling mental and physical health of people. AI technologies have seen to be introduced to help management of patients real time monitoring of its outbreaks and helping update the patients data, improve treatment outcome by prioritizing patients, diagnosis and recording of minute fluctuations in patients, assisting medical practitioners and giving productive solutions. The researchers will show the paradigm shift in the number of patents filed every year in the field of AI specific to healthcare sector from diagnosis to recovery of patients. The chapter includes how all the above applications lead to legal conundrums and the imminent need of bringing amendments to existing legislations or drafting new policies and encouraging government to bring up initiatives for innovations and research and development on the same. The Constitution of India has incorporated provisions which guarantees everyone the ‘right for the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’(Article 19, Internet intermediaries: dilemma of liability, https://www.article19.org/data/files/Intermediaries_ENGLISH.pdf, 2013). With the growth in usage of AI-induced systems in the healthcare sector, it has invited some unwanted issues. Protection of sensitive personal information and the impact assessment is however a major concern and is dealt by different International and national legislations and bills. AIs will soon lead the national security of India and economy (Barak, Proportionality: constitutional rights and their limitations, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012). An analysis on the existing data, application of AI in healthcare and there legal implications shows the expected outcome in a few years. The consequence mainly technical and legal is discussed by the researchers.