Trust, but Verify: Informed Consent, AI Technologies, and Public Health Emergencies

Brian Pickering
Additional contact information
Brian Pickering: IT Innovation, Electronics and Computing, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK

Future Internet, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: To use technology or engage with research or medical treatment typically requires user consent: agreeing to terms of use with technology or services, or providing informed consent for research participation, for clinical trials and medical intervention, or as one legal basis for processing personal data. Introducing AI technologies, where explainability and trustworthiness are focus items for both government guidelines and responsible technologists, imposes additional challenges. Understanding enough of the technology to be able to make an informed decision, or consent, is essential but involves an acceptance of uncertain outcomes. Further, the contribution of AI-enabled technologies not least during the COVID-19 pandemic raises ethical concerns about the governance associated with their development and deployment. Using three typical scenarios—contact tracing, big data analytics and research during public emergencies—this paper explores a trust-based alternative to consent. Unlike existing consent-based mechanisms, this approach sees consent as a typical behavioural response to perceived contextual characteristics. Decisions to engage derive from the assumption that all relevant stakeholders including research participants will negotiate on an ongoing basis. Accepting dynamic negotiation between the main stakeholders as proposed here introduces a specifically socio–psychological perspective into the debate about human responses to artificial intelligence. This trust-based consent process leads to a set of recommendations for the ethical use of advanced technologies as well as for the ethical review of applied research projects.

Keywords: informed consent; terms of use; AI-technologies; technology acceptance; trust; public health emergency; COVID-19; big data; contact tracing; research ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/13/5/132/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/13/5/132/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jftint:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:132-:d:556551

Access Statistics for this article

Future Internet is currently edited by Ms. Grace You

More articles in Future Internet from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().