A Whitepaper on The Ethics and Governance of Sentient AI Navigating Advanced Technologies in Health Data Spaces and Systems

This open-access paper has been co-authored by Perihan Elif Ekmekci, Francis P. Crawley, Ebrar Gultekin, Selin Arpaci, Nidhi Nagabhatla, Seid Muhie Yimam, Dirk Hommrich, Urbano Fra Paleo, Thalia (Talia) Arawi, Femi Qudus Arogundade, Ece Dayanç and Olayinka Osuolate.

This paper examines the ethical, legal, and governance challenges posed by sentient artificial intelligence (SAI) in the healthcare sector. Examining the evolution of AI from the Dartmouth Conference to the present contextualizes the renewed fascination with "thinking machines" capable of subjective experiences, self-awareness, and autonomy. Even though people have been talking about the ethics of AI for a long time, SAI brings up current issues about how it affects decision-making, data ownership, transparency, and responsibility. The research says that strong governance mechanisms and working together across fields are important for solving these difficulties. By raising awareness of critical issues, it aims to facilitate the development of healthcare AI ethics and establish a foundation for future research and policy-making.