The Ethical and Societal Considerations for the Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Ophthalmology

Medical specialties with access to a large amount of imaging data, such as ophthalmology, have been at the forefront of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution in medicine, driven by deep learning (DL) and big data. With the rise of AI and big data, there has also been increasing concern on the issues of bias and privacy, which can be partially addressed by low-shot learning, generative DL, federated learning and a "model-to-data" approach, as demonstrated by various groups of investigators in ophthalmology. However, to adequately tackle the ethical and societal challenges associated with the rise of AI in ophthalmology, a more comprehensive approach is preferable. Specifically, AI should be viewed as sociotechnical, meaning this technology shapes, and is shaped by social phenomena.