Indiana CTSI: Will AI Kill Us or Save Us?

The Indiana CTSI AI Workshop Series: Will AI Kill Us or Save Us?

Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us? In healthcare, AI offers enormous potential to cut pollution and environmental harm, but it also consumes vast amounts of electricity and water. For example, replacing an in-person eye exam with autonomous AI can reduce the carbon footprint of diabetic eye screenings by up to 80%. AI can also make healthcare more efficient by optimizing heating and cooling in facilities (especially operating rooms), managing inventory, supporting clinical decisions, enabling telehealth, and powering remote monitoring. Yet, to make sure AI helps more than harms, we must use it sustainability. That means asking key questions: Do we need AI for this task? Which models can solve the problem with the least energy and water use? Are we optimizing the energy sources that power AI? And how can we encourage the development and use of greener AI technologies?

Speaker:
Titus K. Schleyer, PhD
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Indiana University School of Medicine