AI in Medicine – Responsible Innovation. Opening Remarks by Prof. Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University – May 2025

Prof. Ariel Porat, President of Tel Aviv University, delivered the opening remarks at the first national conference of the Responsible AI in Medicine Initiative at Tel Aviv University, held in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, on May 5, 2025.

In his speech, Porat addressed various aspects of responsible AI in the legal world and their application to medicine and healthcare, emphasizing the importance of the initiative. Among other points, he discussed the issue of explainability – the difficulty of understanding how AI arrives at a decision or recommendation – which poses enormous challenges both in the legal system and in medicine; the issue of equity and the potential biases of AI that may harm minority groups or certain populations; and the issue of privacy and the need to balance the use of data for the public good with protecting individual privacy. He also spoke about the risks of overreliance on AI and stressed the importance of incorporating ethical and regulatory considerations early in the technology development process.