Dr. Şinasi Can Medical Ethics Days - 3: Artificial Intelligence and Ethics Symposium

The third, Dr. Şinasi Can Medical Ethics Days Symposium was held on 21 December 2024 at Kadıköy Acıbadem Hospital with the theme of Artificial Intelligence and Ethics with the honorary presence of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Şahin, the Rector and Medical Director of Acıbadem University. By his inaugural speech, Dr. Mustafa Candan, the Director and Chief Physician of Kadıköy Acıbadem Dr. Şinasi Can Hospital, told about the respectable physician Opr. Dr. Şinasi Can's (1940-2020) life story and his professional life eagerly dedicated to the profession.

First at the symposium, Prof. Dr. Ata Akın presented comprehensive information about the nature and scope of Artificial Intelligence in terms of biomedical engineering, its use in science, health and daily life, and its positive and negative aspects. Bioethicist Prof. Dr. Yesim Isil Ulman dealed with "Ethical Dimension of the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health", based on concrete data from a qualitative research they conducted as a multidisciplinary team. She elaborated that rational, supervised Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can work in collaboration with physicians who know what, how and for what purpose they use it as a sophisticated support source; it can provide effective, efficient, fast, unbiased and competent contribution that helps patients and physicians make better decisions; a transparent and accountable AI system operating in accordance with the public interest can be a seminal scientific innovation for humanity; if it is structured with ethical values, respecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law (*).

In her speech titled "Legal regulations for Artificial Intelligence application areas", Assist. Prof Dr. Başak Ozan Özparlak shed light on the issue of how and on what basis legal regulations should be structured. Prof. Dr. Melih Bulut drew attention to the innovative potential of Artificial Intelligence in his speech titled "Areas where Artificial Intelligence changes life in an unpredictable way, especially in health". In his presentation named “Can we talk about the philosophy of Artificial Intelligence? Will we be able to talk about the conscience of AI one day?", Assoc. Prof. Dr. Utku Köse emphasized the importance of Kant's  Deontological Theory of Moral Philosophy, which focuses on the process rather than the consequences regarding the applications of AI powered systems. The last speaker  Prof. Dr. Hakan S. Orer gave a speech that synthesized all the speeches and expressed the importance of bioethical values ​​and principles in the construction of AI systems. Having been designed with a multidisciplinary structure, the Symposium provided a strong learning environment that covered a wide and diverse range of perspectives, expertise and knowledge, and closed with insightful questions and answers.

(*) Kahraman F, Aktas A, Bayrakceken S, Çakar T, Tarcan HS, Bayram B, Durak B and Ulman YI (2024) Physicians’ ethical concerns about artificial intelligence in medicine: a qualitative study: “The final decision should rest with a human”. Front. Public Health 12:1428396. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1428396