A Medical Ethics Framework for Conversational Artificial Intelligence (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED This paper is proposed a framework for considering the ethics of conversational chatbots used in medicine, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework incorporates known risks of conversational chatbots, including errors, discrimination, stereotyping, exclusion, stigma, lack of privacy, poor data governance, and technological solutionism. The paper discusses how these can relate to principles of medical ethics, namely beneficience, non-maleficience, autonomy and justice. The objective of this paper is to inform future regulations in medical chatbot use.