The achievements of contemporary machine learning (ML) methods highlight the enormous potential of integrating AI systems in various domains of medicine, ranging from the analysis of diagnostic images in radiology and dermatology to increasingly complex applications such as forecasting in intensive care units or the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. However, despite their potential, many medical professionals are sceptical toward the integration of machine learning tools in their practices. The reasons for this scepticism are mostly related to opacity, or so-called black-box, problem, which refers to the difficulty of humans to understand the reasoning behind the outcomes of ML models and ultimately decide whether to trust them or not.
Much effort has been dedicated in the last year to overcome such difficulty, both from a policy and ethical but also engineering and design perspectives. Nevertheless there is still much disagreement among scholars on the real effectiveness of the various proposed solutions.
The aim of the meeting, organised in Lugano (Switzerland) on November 2-3 2023 under the auspices of the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA USI-SUPSI, the College of Humanities at EPFL and the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich, is to bring together experts from different fields such as philosophy, bioethics, AI ethics, XAI, and human-computer interaction to discuss if, how and to what extent proposed solution to the black-box problem are effective in supporting the successful integration and appropriation of AI systems in medical practice.
Current invited speakers include:
- Federico Cabitza (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)
- Lily Frank (Technical University of Eindhoven)
- Thomas Grote (University of Tübingen)
- Janna Hastings (University of Zurich & University of St. Gallen)
- Andreas Holzinger (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna)
Selected presentations include:
- Philipp Denzel (ZHAW)
- Andrea Ferrario (ETHZ)
- Ruis Santos (University of Zurich)
- Chiara Natali (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca)
- Hugues Turbé (University of Geneva)
Ultimately, we hope to stimulate interactions and discussions based on some of the latest developments in these fields with both established researchers, graduate and postgraduate students and possibly the general public.
Attendance is free. However, for organisational reasons, those who wish to attend the meeting should write to alessandro.facchini@idsia.ch, who can also answer any further question.
The meeting is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and SUPSI. It is co-organised by Alessandro Facchini and Alberto Termine (IDSIA USI-SUPSI), Marcello Ienca and Georg Starke (TUM & EPFL), and Felix Gille (UZH).