Artificial Intelligence Governance in Anatomy: From Disclosure Toward Stewardship

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing anatomical education, research, scholarly publishing, and the development of digital anatomical resources. Current discussions of AI governance in anatomy have largely focused on author use and disclosure. However, AI now operates across multiple stages of scholarly communication and increasingly intersects with anatomical images, body donation, and donor-derived resources. These developments raise discipline-specific questions about visual authenticity, provenance, confidentiality, secondary use, and the continuing responsibilities associated with body donation and donor-derived knowledge. This viewpoint proposes the Anatomy Stewardship Framework as a conceptual approach to these challenges. Stewardship is defined as the continuing ethical, professional, and institutional responsibility associated with body donation. It guides decisions affecting prospective donors, body donors, donor-derived resources, and the knowledge generated from them throughout their life cycle. The framework organizes these responsibilities into four interconnected domains: stewardship of the donor, relational stewardship, stewardship of donor-derived resources, and stewardship of scholarly dissemination. Artificial intelligence is positioned as a technology that intersects with these domains and does not form a separate ethical domain. The framework is intended to support structured ethical reflection without prescribing specific decisions. It also provides a foundation for more specific guidance that may develop through engagement across the anatomical community.