Artificial intelligence for healthcare and well-being during exceptional times : a recent landscape from a European perspective

This report provides a detailed state of the art of the current and near-future applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine, healthcare and wellbeing, particularly focused on their impact on people's physical and mental health, and in societal and environmental welfare, including future generations. It builds on previous analyses, is framed in recent historical circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, and accounts for recent strategic policy priorities in related areas. Aimed for a science for policy audience, and adopting a European perspective, the described outcomes are of interest for researchers studying the ethical and social impact of AI in medicine, healthcare, and wellbeing, for scientific and technological stakeholders, and for the general public. The present analysis of the state of the art includes software, personal monitoring devices, genetic tests and editing tools, personalized digital models, online platforms, augmented reality devices, and surgical and companion robotics. It identifies the particularities of AI systems and applications, the opportunities and risks associated to them, as well as their availability level. This study proposes a methodology for the assessment of the social impact of these technologies, considering their maturity, availability, controversy, and sustainability, together with an integrated overview. From this review, the report identifies 100 relevant topics in the field, supported with references, and analyses lessons learnt in the area from the mentioned historical circumstances and significant institutional appraisals. In addition, the present study recognizes five key expanding areas with particular significance in terms of social impact: AI tools for mental health, AI-mediated gene edition, AI tools for epidemiology and health data monitoring, AI-mediated neuro-technologies and AI-mediated inclusion of neurodiversity, and describes them in detail considering the proposed social assessment scales. This report also identifies novel AI-mediated challenges and risks related to the protection against biological threats, and links them to the concept of One Health (human, animal and environmental) and to the updated policy initiatives by the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization. Finally, the report outlines a series of controversial issues, namely gene edition for human augmentation and neuro-technologies for decoding of and interacting with cognitive signals. From our analysis, we provide some science for policy challenges, aimed to translate the scientific and technical narrative into practical approaches for the benefit of the persons and society and towards an effective European-centric perspective in the field.