We know that the NHS, also known as the National Health Services, is run by the UK Government and provides healthcare to almost all of the UK citizens and it is said to be one of the most important organizations in the whole of UK as of now and its importance was also seen during the pandemic. Now, it is worth noting that the UK citizens often say that the NHS is overburdened because of understaffing and this AI revolution has meant that there are other options that can be explored to reduce the workload on NHS staffers as well.
Due to this reason, it is known that the UK Government has committed to fund $26.75 million into various NHS trusts in order to “accelerate the deployment of the most promising AI tools” in hospitals all over the UK. In a press statement, Dr. Deb Lowe from NHS England said, “The use of AI decision support software in the initial stages of stroke care means patients get interventions quicker, reducing the likelihood of disability and saving the brains”. “We are already seeing the positive impact of AI decision support software on stroke care, where rapid assessment and treatment are of the essence, and we now have real-world evidence of the benefit for NHS patients.” U.K.’s department of health and social care explained that “NHS Trusts will be able to apply for funds for “any AI diagnostic tool” that Trusts see fit to deploy, though it will have to justify its request in terms of value-for-money”.
UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced that “AI juggernauts OpenAI, Google’s DeepMind and Anthropic were to provide “early or priority access” to all their AI models as a means to support research into evaluation and safety of the AI”. It is also worth noting that the AI frenzy from the UK Government and NHS has led to them being in trouble as well. It is known that “U.K. data regulator ruling back in 2017 that a data-sharing partnership the NHS had struck with Google’s DeepMind broke privacy laws”. This class action lawsuit was eventually tossed out by UK’s court earlier this year.