Zwischen fachlichen Standards und wilder Innovation: Zur Begutachtung von Big Data- und KI-Projekten in Forschungs-Ethikkommissionen

In medicine, as well as in other disciplines, computer science expertise is becoming increasingly important. This requires a culture of interdisciplinary assessment, for which medical ethics committees are not well prepared. The use of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) methods (whether developed in-house or in the form of “tools”) pose further challenges for research ethics reviews.

This paper describes the problems and suggests solving them through procedural changes.

An assessment that is interdisciplinary from the outset appears to be more suitable than having two commissions with different expertise. However, this would require that the composition of medical ethics committees be altered. In addition, the article recommends initial measures to be taken during research ethics reviews of big data and AI projects in order to consolidate the review process and ensure standardization of the criteria.