As technology keeps marching forward, you knew this question would come around one day—can you sue a robot? Well, not exactly. But there are serious legal issues surrounding the use of surgical robots in the practice of medicine and what that means in the event of an artificial intelligence lawsuit.
The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) reports nearly 1,400 injuries due to malfunctions by artificial intelligence (AI). The errors are most common during complex surgeries, but they can also arise in more common situations. For example, a hospital may use AI to interpret basic X-Rays as a way of saving on labor costs. What if the AI misses a pneumonia that a human radiologist would clearly have identified and the result is a patient death?
The result is a lawsuit. The first decision the plaintiffs’ legal counsel must make is whether this is a medical malpractice issue or a product liability matter. If the robot was improperly instructed by the doctor at hand or supervision by hospital staff was lacking, then it could be medical malpractice. More likely though, problems will arise from mechanical failures which point back to the manufacturer. Those are product liability cases.
Once that’s decided, there’s still a large legal gray area. The doctors who perform robotic surgery, the institutions who rely on AI and the manufacturers who produce the equipment, all go through an extensive certification process with the FDA. Barring extreme negligence, does the FDA approval provide a “shield” in a court of law against lawsuits? The Supreme Court has been vague thus far.
What is also vague is how negligence would be established if the lawsuit is filed against the doctor or hospital. Negligence cases are built around establishing that an accepted “standard of care” was violated. But what are those standards with the use of AI? Again, we are in the midst of a fluid situation.
AI is rapidly growing. There is over $800 million invested in the technology according to recent reports. Those same reports say over one-third of doctors already use AI and two-thirds are optimistic about its prospects.
AI has the potential to help doctors make sharper diagnoses, reducing the expense associated with multiple physician opinions and eventually lead to fewer, rather than more malpractice lawsuits. AI can also save more lives, with benefits ranging from assistance with case triaging, automatic tumor tracking and improved workflow.
All of these benefits are incentives for the courts and the medical community to provide some clear standards on liability and standard of care. Artificial intelligence lawsuits and hefty payouts can put a severe crimp in this emerging sector of the economy and legal uncertainty can lead to higher costs for malpractice insurance.