Patents and intellectual property laws are key to protecting innovation, but can also hinder openness and ease of sharing, problems during crises like COVID-19. Berlin-based nonprofit the Hippo AI Foundation is on a quest to promote openness, cooperation, and innovation without sacrificing safeguards.

As 2022 draws to a close, it is time to start looking ahead to the future of AI and its impact in 2023. Bart de Witte, an expert on digital transformation in healthcare and founder of Berlin-based non-profit HIPPO AI, which aims to make AI in medicine a community asset, predicts what AI holds in store for 2023, and thereafter.

Open source data and AI hold many advantages, yet still have a reputation as insecure and unreliable. AI expert Bart de Witte looks at several common misconceptions about OS data and explains the real situation.

Most people cannot distinguish between an account operated by an actual human and one that is simply a chatbot. As algorithms and bots become more sophisticated, they influence how people think, emotions they express, and even their personalities. Such ‘sentient’ AI with the power to control emotions, actions, and opinions is potentially highly dangerous. More oversight is thus needed, but this should not come at the expense of openness or benefits to society.

Fears that intellectual property lawyers, policymakers and lobbyists are determining the future of health is real. But HIPPO AI founder Bart de Witte believes artificial intelligence policymakers should start focusing more on open-source AI for healthcare, to create true transparency and trust.

The future of medicine is a battlefield. Unnoticed by most of the public, a ruthless distribution war is underway for all of our health data. Who gets access? Who has to pay for it? Will patients still control their own data? Bart de Witte wants society to wake up to the issue, strengthen the European economy, and build a new, digital social market economy.

The future of healthcare is uncertain until we know who owns the life-saving information generated from data extracted from our bodies, and who owns the data generated from machine learning applications related to medical diagnostic research. HIPPO AI founder Barte de Witte examines the only two options society has in this regard: open collaboration or privatization.