Will Artificial Intelligence Augment Global Health Inequalities?

AbstractArtificial intelligence (AI) has been promoted as a tool to reduce global health inequities by addressing workforce shortages and expanding access to specialist care. However, if AI development and validation are concentrated in high-income countries, innovation may disproportionately benefit populations with lower disease burden and greater clinical capacity. Using ophthalmology as an illustrative example, we mapped the global distribution of AI research in ophthalmology relative to blindness prevalence and the global distribution of ophthalmologists. Research output is disproportionately concentrated in countries with more ophthalmologists and lower levels of blindness. This disparity raises a concern that AI could reinforce existing global health inequities unless deliberate efforts are made to support AI research in low- and middle-income country settings. Aligning AI evidence generation and validation with global disease burden will be essential if these technologies are to narrow, rather than widen, health gaps.