Whose Knowledge Counts? Exploring Epistemic Injustice in Medical AI

Who is the most credible source of personal medical information—the patient sharing their personal experience or the medical AI system fed with digital metrics and parameters? And whose advice should a patient follow—that of the physician who knows them personally or that of an automated AI system trained on more data than their doctor? Could AI systems in medical decision-making undermine the credibility of both patients and physicians? Do such systems impair understanding and fundamental communication practices between patients and physicians?

Program

In this lecture, we invite Giorgia Pozzi (TU Delft), who addresses these questions through the concept of epistemic injustice. This concept has inaugurated a new research area in AI ethics and medicine that seeks to identify epistemically unjust ways of conceiving illness, treating individuals, and allocating healthcare.

After Pozzi’s introductory lecture, an interdisciplinary panel of scholars, including Jonathan Adams (ethics), Veronique Hoste (natural language processing) and Sofia Palmieri (law), will exchange ideas about AI in the healthcare landscape and the relevance of epistemic injustice (moderation by Heidi Mertes).

We welcome individuals working in academia, clinical practice, and anyone interested in the challenges posed by the introduction of AI in healthcare.