AI has already delivered huge benefits to humanity and is poised to continue to do so, but a dearth of rules and transparency has allowed faulty or biased algorithms to frequently discriminate against those they are intended to help, reinforcing and aggravating existing inequalities. Change is clearly needed, but solutions remain elusive, two UN health and social sciences officials explain.

The US government has established the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, but how should this agency be funded and structured so that innovations in AI and healthcare actually end up benefiting the public and reducing inequality? DARPA and the National Institutes of Health can serve as a guide for what works well and what does not.

The new Omicron variant is a reminder that the system for managing global health emergencies remains woefully inadequate.