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Guardrails for the use of generalist AI in cancer care

Nature Reviews Cancer (2024)Cite this article

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Artificial narrow intelligence models, trained for specific intended purposes, have gained approval and recommendation for cancer treatment. Generalist medicial artificial intelligence (GMAI) models are now being developed for cancer treatment. Policy makers have a stark choice: radically adapt frameworks, block generalist approaches or force them onto narrower tracks.

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Fig. 1: The spectrum of technologies for clinical decision support, classified as device or non-device for regulatory purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Digital Health, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

    Stephen Gilbert & Jakob Nikolas Kather

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  1. Stephen Gilbert
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  2. Jakob Nikolas Kather
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Correspondence to Stephen Gilbert.

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Competing interests

S.G. has or has had consulting relationships with Una Health GmbH, Lindus Health Ltd, Flo Ltd, Thymia Ltd, FORUM Institut für Management GmbH, High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH and Ada Health GmbH; and he holds share options in Ada Health GmbH. J.N.K. provides consulting services for Owkin, France; DoMore Diagnostics, Norway and Panakeia, UK, he holds shares in StratifAI GmbH and he has received honoraria for lectures by Bayer, Eisai, MSD, BMS, Roche, Pfizer and Fresenius.

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Nature Reviews Cancer thanks Olivier Elemento and the other anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Gilbert, S., Kather, J.N. Guardrails for the use of generalist AI in cancer care. Nat Rev Cancer (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-024-00685-8

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