Ethical and legal considerations for nutrition virtual coaches

Abstract

Choices and preferences of individuals are nowadays increasingly influenced by countless inputs and recommendations provided by artificial intelligence-based systems. The accuracy of recommender systems (RS) has achieved remarkable results in several domains, from infotainment to marketing and lifestyle. However, in sensitive use-cases, such as nutrition, there is a need for more complex dynamics and responsibilities beyond conventional RS frameworks. On one hand, virtual coaching systems (VCS) are intended to support and educate the users about food, integrating additional dimensions w.r.t. the conventional RS (i.e., leveraging persuasion techniques, argumentation, informative systems, and recommendation paradigms) and show promising results. On the other hand, as of today, VCS raise unexplored ethical and legal concerns. This paper discusses the need for a clear understanding of the ethical/legal-technological entanglements, formalizing 21 ethical and ten legal challenges and the related mitigation strategies. Moreover, it elaborates on nutrition sustainability as a further nutrition virtual coaches dimension for a better society.

Rethinking Health Recommender Systems for Active Aging: An Autonomy-Based Ethical Analysis

“…Conventional RS have boosted, among others, marketing, e-commerce, and overall consumerist behaviors (Calvaresi et al, 2022 ). However, ingrained in modern life, commercial RS have remarkably contributed to the development of unhealthy habits (i.e., excessive consumption of energy/sugar-dense food and alcohol and use of unhealthy sets of recipes) that can last over time (Trattner & Elsweiler, 2017 ; Calvaresi et al, 2022 ). HRS should fight such tendencies by promoting prevention, awareness, and overall healthy behaviors (De Croon et al, 2021 ).…”

“…While such techniques have been shown to be particularly functional in triggering a behavioral change in health and for HRS’ tasks, as outlined (Calvaresi et al, 2022 ), such techniques can also raise a number of ethical risks and challenges that, if untackled, can undermine individuals’ well-being—in particular in aging conditions. The ethical risks underlying such challenges indeed become increasingly relevant with respect to those raised by conventional RS (Milano et al, 2020 ), considering their high-sensitive application field.…”

Towards Interactive Explanation-based Nutrition Virtual Coaching Systems

“…Therefore, society needs guidance on making suitable and sustainable dietary choices [8,12,43]. To counter the unhealthy trend, food recommender systems ś assisting individuals in recipe selection have gained popularity [8,43]. The need for these systems can be attributed to increased globalization, leading to greater availability and variety of food, as well as the prevalence of ultra-processed food, contributing to metabolic and overweight issues [18].…”

“…Tasty ś yet unhealthy components ś are increasingly hidden in a wide range of processed food items. Therefore, society needs guidance on making suitable and sustainable dietary choices [8,12,43]. To counter the unhealthy trend, food recommender systems ś assisting individuals in recipe selection have gained popularity [8,43].…”

“…Existing solutions, both from research and industry, have attempted to address these goals. However, they often lack transparency and clarity, leading to a lack of trust and effectiveness [8]. To enhance transparency and, henceforth, effectiveness, Explainable AI (XAI) techniques have been employed in various domains, such as transportation, ŕeet management, and neurosciences [14,33].…”