The final act of the meeting was a panel discussion entitled “Artificial Intelligence? Help!!! Or maybe… helpful?, with the participation of Dr Maja Bogataj Jančič. At the event, which was also attended by Marko Groblenik, IJS, and moderated by Igor E. Bergant, she highlighted the benefits of artificial intelligence and warned of the dangers. Especially in the field of radiology and diagnostics, AI can be very helpful. For example, already in 2016, a research project was carried out in collaboration between the UKC and the Faculty of Electronic Engineering Analysis of medical images with machine learning to predict the course of brain disease and the effectiveness of treatment. The project was led by Prof. Dr. Katarina Šurlan Popovič on the UKC side, and Prof. Dr. Franjo Pernuš and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Žiga Špiclin on the EF side. Artificial intelligence can be an extremely powerful tool and can be of great help to doctors, especially in making a diagnosis and determining the appropriate treatment. This is also the aim of the Slovenian TELEKAP project, which could increase the efficiency of neurologists and radiologists in the field of stroke treatment. Prof. Dr Katarina Šurlan Popović, who was present in the auditorium, pointed out that an American study and practice has shown that artificial intelligence can save up to 2 hours of time in treatment procedures, where the first hours are crucial, which is literally a matter of life and death.

Dr Maja Bogataj Jančič stressed the importance of data management in the processes of creating artificial intelligence and of respecting legal rules and ethical guidelines. It is crucial that researchers and experts who are creating artificial intelligence, which was also the case with the panellist Marek Grobelnik, who is a prominent expert in this field in Slovenia, are (better) aware of the importance of legal and ethical constraints in the initial processes of creating artificial intelligence. These include in particular issues of privacy protection, research ethics rules and, in some cases (less so in medicine), copyright issues. She also pointed out that it is the neglect of these issues that could jeopardise the development of AI. As an example, she highlighted ChatGTP, which was launched at a stage where it is still working quite poorly, but is being replicated as a mass-market product. She highlighted the important lawsuit brought by the New York Times against OpenAI and critically pointed out that, because of OpenAI’s approach to these issues, there may now be a situation where OpenAI will lose the lawsuit and, as a consequence, the entertainment industry will control the creation of artificial intelligence in all fields, even those as useful as medicine. She pointed out that the EU regulates the field differently, distinguishing between cases where research is involved and cases where commercial AI is involved.