The European arm of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare could compromise patients’ health and privacy amid a sharp spike in AI adoption across Europe.
Elsewhere, Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has opened its largest AI infrastructure center outside the U.S. in Taiwan, as the AI supremacy battle with China heats up.
WHO: AI in healthcare risks privacy and safety
In its first report mapping out the integration of AI in healthcare, WHO Europe revealed that while adoption is high, it’s uneven. In some fields, such as diagnostics and patient-facing chatbots, adoption is high across the 50 countries surveyed by the organization.
AI use is lower in prognosis prediction, symptom checking, and surgery, the study, jointly funded by the European Union, revealed.
While still in its infancy, the technology has delivered benefits such as improved patient care and reduced the burden on healthcare workers, who are overworked in most of the surveyed countries. It has also reduced healthcare inequalities, increased efficiency, and cut costs.
However, AI poses some significant risks, the WHO says. One stems from the low quality of the training data, which results in biased or unsafe outcomes. Given the sensitivity of healthcare information, the organization warns that AI also leaves patients vulnerable to privacy violations; only 20% of the surveyed countries have guidelines for the use of patients’ data in AI.
An overreliance on AI by medical practitioners also poses a risk to the patients. This is exacerbated by limited infrastructure in most countries and insufficient training data, which can lead to wrong treatment suggestions and unsafe clinical practices.
But even without the technical challenges, AI adoption in healthcare needs to overcome a trust barrier that keeps many potential users at bay. WHO found that most respondents are still reluctant to have AI involved in impactful healthcare processes and decisions.
The technology’s track record in other sectors, where it has shown bias against some groups, further entrenches the distrust.
The WHO noted that governments must implement policies that better protect their citizens; currently, only 28% of the respondent countries have ethical guidelines in place for AI companies.
“The gaps in legal accountability, uneven investments in workforce development and emerging risks of exclusion underscore the need for continued vigilance, cooperation and learning,” commented Hans Henri Kluge, the regional director for WHO Europe.
“Equity must remain our guiding principle, ensuring that the benefits of AI extend not only across Member States but also within them, reaching all communities regardless of geography, income or digital capacity.”
WHO Europe joins dozens of other global organizations and leaders calling for better regulation for AI integration in healthcare.
Pope Leo XIV recently called on healthcare workers to use AI responsibly and uphold human dignity.
“If AI is to serve human dignity and the effective provision of healthcare, we must ensure that it truly enhances both interpersonal relationships and the care provided,” he stated.
Google opens largest overseas AI center in Taiwan
Elsewhere, Google has opened a new hardware engineering hub in Taiwan—its largest AI infrastructure operation outside the U.S.
The California-based tech giant identified the East Asian nation’s tech talent and supply chain expertise as its most significant pull factors. Taiwan is home to some of the world’s largest chipmakers, led by TSMC (NASDAQ: TSM), the world’s largest semiconductor foundry. TSMC supplies every other major chip designer globally, including Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD (NASDAQ: AMD).
“This is not just an investment in an office, it is an investment in an ecosystem,” commented Aamer Mahmood, Google Cloud’s VP for platform infrastructure engineering.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the investment cements the country’s position as “a vital part of the global technology supply chain.”
The new center comes at a time when the U.S. has been heavily courting Taiwan as a key ally in its AI supremacy battle with China. The Trump government’s biggest weapon has been withholding exports of advanced AI chips to China, making Taiwan a key piece of its strategy.
For Google, the new center comes as it takes the battle for AI chips to Nvidia. The search engine giant recently signed a megadeal to supply one million chips to Anthropic, and insiders say Meta (NASDAQ: META) could be spending billions on Google’s chips in 2026.
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Watch: AI is a double-edged sword
Source: https://coingeek.com/who-ai-could-undermine-safety-and-privacy-in-healthcare/
