North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology
Abstract
Time is the most valuable commodity bought and sold in our society. In the health care industry, time is always at a premium, and even in areas with a high concentration of physicians, patient needs are often unmet. With the rising popularity of artificial intelligence in private homes, the Big Five tech companies, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google (FAAMG), are making strides to enter the health care industry and revolutionize it. Using Amazon’s partnership with electronic health record company, Cerner, this article will discuss how Big Five artificial intelligence technology will revolutionize the health care sector and create efficiency and greater access to health care. This article will also address future plans to fully integrate Alexa artificial intelligence technology into primary health care settings. There are many legitimate privacy concerns with integrating the always-listening artificial devices into sacred private spaces like the doctor’s office. The benefits of this systematic evolution of the health care sector, however, will outweigh the risks to privacy through improvements to efficiency, reductions to physical workload, and improved doctor-patient relationships. Society should support entry of artificial intelligence into health care and promote development of regulations as needed to mitigate concerns with how health data is stored and utilized. Ultimately, our existing health data privacy system is equipped to handle this AI integration. Ensuring FAAMG will not misuse data for advertising and granting the FTC the support it needs to enforce company policies will protect consumers.
First Page
59
Recommended Citation
Nicole Angelica,
Alexa's Artificial Intelligence Paves the Way for Big Tech's Entrance into the Health Care Industry -- The Benefits to Efficiency and Support of the Patient-Centric System Outweigh the Impact on Privacy,
21
N.C. J.L. & Tech.
59
(2020).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/ncjolt/vol21/iss4/4