Sound governance is crucial to the pro-innovative, effective and ethical adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in healthcare. In Hong Kong, the Digital Policy Office and the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data have issued relevant guidance on the use of AI in general, but there is as yet no explicit governance framework tailored to the medical context.
This paper aims to provides an overview on AI-related regulatory regimes in other jurisdictions (e.g., Mainland China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada) with a view to illustrate the general trajectory of development and how existing regulatory characteristics may differ and evolve. It will explore whether some of the approaches, if any, may be applicable to Hong Kong, or whether a new regulatory mechanism needs to be established. It is the author's personal view that a dialogue on these matters is timely and necessary if Hong Kong is to assume a leading role in propelling the advancement of next-generation healthcare services.
