Safeguards for the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in global health

The potential benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning are gaining attention in public health as in other fields. With applications spanning clinical decision support to management of supply-chain systems, artificial intelligence-enabled technologies are poised to improve clinical care and strengthen health systems.1 Given the pace of progress in the application of such tools in advanced economies, we consider several challenges that lowand middle-income countries need to overcome to develop and deploy similar innovations. Health systems will have an important role in shaping the development of artificial intelligence-based tools and realizing their benefits. We argue that lower-resource countries will need to invest in improvements in data quality, improve equity in access to care, establish safeguards to minimize the harmful effects of bias and address supportive linkages within the health system. Without these developments, the benefits of the new technologies may fail to materialize, further exacerbating health disparities within and between high- and low-income countries.