By URN
Scientists have warned that the unregulated use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by students doing key courses such as medicine presents a danger to the future health workforce.
This was after lecturers attending the closure of the Annual Bio-Ethics Conference expressed concern that they are seeing an increasing number of students turning to AI rather than doing proper research that advances their technical skills.
Dr Joseph Ochieng, a Bioethicist and lecturer at Makerere University’s Department of Anatomy said if untamed, AI could be disastrous as students are now just picking up content without checking key ethical considerations that are consistent with science.
Prof Nelson Sewankambo an academician and former Principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences warns that there are a lot of ethical issues associated with AI, noting that regulators have no way of stopping it’s use.
Rather, he says they should come up with national guidelines to help students make the best use of AI in a way that doesn’t undermine their understanding of the issues and ethics in their various disciplines.
To address the ethical issues with emerging technologies such as those presented with the use of AI, Dr Dominic Mudrugo-ogo Lali, Assistant Secretary General of the Uganda National Commission for UNESCO urged Makerere University to turn their bioethics centre into a UNESCO centre. He says this comes with opportunities for the work being done in Uganda will be recognized globally where the United Nations entity operates.
However, Sewankambo says he made a proposal for the Makerere Bioethics Center to push for becoming a UNESCO bioethics centre but his idea was never implemented. He says if this had been done, Uganda would have become a referral point by others elsewhere in the world as far as ethics are concerned.
