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Applications of AI in Healthcare

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the significance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated, as it plays a pivotal role in both preserving the integrity of services and safeguarding sensitive patient data. With the continuous digitization of healthcare, including the widespread adoption of electronic health records and the integration of new medical devices, the need for robust protection against emerging cyber threats becomes increasingly urgent. This urgency is further emphasized by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) as a crucial tool in healthcare diagnostics, clinical practice, clinical data management, and further automation and enhanced need for cybersecurity. This blog post aims to explore the multifaceted application of AI in healthcare. The overarching objective is to explore how AI technologies contribute to the enhancement of contemporary healthcare practices, how they impact cybersecurity, and how they provide insights into the promising and concerning future of AI in healthcare.

The US vs. the EU: A look at the pre- and post-market regulation of medical devices with Medtronic’s pacemaker devices as a case study.

The term “medical devices” is usually used very broadly when referring to a type of technology that helps patients with their health. There are challenges with the categorization of medical devices that might impact their approval process and their availability on the market for patients and providers to use. A slower and more diligent approval process might delay the population’s access to lifesaving and life-sustaining technologies. A quicker and more streamlined approval process might increase the risks associated with medical technology use. Residents of the United States (US) often rely on agencies such as the FDA to offer its stamp of approval for medical devices for such devices to be considered safe and secure. Yet, medical device recalls still happen in the US, which indicates possible inefficiencies within the FDA’s regulatory processes. Could inefficiencies in the FDA’s medical device approval and regulation processes be causing harm and/or preventing positive outcomes by imposing high barriers to entry for medical device approval? To address this question, this blogpost uses a comparative approach to review the US and the European Union (EU) medical device approval and regulation processes using the case study of the Medrtonic’s pacemaker devices. Most pacemakers are made in Europe and sold in the US. These devices not only have to pass the EU’s medical device regulations but also must pass the FDA’s regulations. This blog post focuses on the premarket and post-market regulatory processes for Medrtonic’s pacemaker devices.

A Virginia Tech Student’s Experience at SCUSA 74 at the United States Military Academy (West Point)

It was a privilege to have been asked to represent Virginia Tech at the 74th Annual Class of 1971 Student Conference on U.S. Affairs – SCUSA 74. This conference has been occurring since 1949 and this year, the class of 1971 graciously donated funds for this event. Since 1949, delegates both nationally and internationally have been invited to this conference to strengthen civilian-military relationships, develop leadership skills, and engage in meaningful discussions. Conference themes have ranged from Confronting Inequality: Wealth, Rights, and Power to The National Security Policy of the United States: The Sputnik Decade. This year’s theme was “Innovation and the Future of American Foreign Policy.”

Fileless Malware: The Tradeoff of Synergy and Security

Microsoft Windows is a powerful and long-standing operating system with deep-rooted features that work throughout the system. Windows’ .NET, PowerShell, and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) frameworks provide cohesiveness and control, enabling the creation of new features and integration across the system. However, as these systems advance in capabilities and features, malicious actors have more opportunities to break into them. Fileless malware is an increasingly common attack method that cyber groups use to break into and persist in systems without a trace. In contrast to traditional malware, which installs itself on the hard drive as a file, fileless malware abuses the .NET and WMI frameworks to inject code and scripts directly into a system’s memory without creating any files or interacting with the hard drive. This offers attackers several advantages: evading detection from signature-based antimalware programs, persistence within the system, and increased difficulty to remove the malicious code.[

AI sentiment analysis and Russia’s war in Ukraine 

AI sentiment analysis offers a potential solution to the problem of determining the attitudes of the Russian public towards the war in Ukraine. Traditional polling conducted within an authoritarian state suffers from the limitation of its inability to accurately assess public opinion in the context of being unable to honestly report public opinion which may be hostile to the state. Polls conducted in Russia are no exception to state censorship and respondents are reluctant to state their genuine opinions under questioning, potentially resulting in an inflated image of widespread public support for the war. AI sentiment analysis can provide more accurate insights on the state of public opinion through direct analysis of social media posts but suffers from its own biases dependent on sample size, program accuracy, and translation flaws. This post examines the potentials and drawbacks of AI sentiment analysis compared to traditional polling methods in determining Russian public opinion on the war in Ukraine.

Issues of Government Surveillance and Spyware use in India

The Indian government’s use of Pegasus spyware demonstrates the need for stronger regulations to protect citizens’ constitutional right to privacy from unlawful government surveillance. The distribution of spyware technology to governments and subsequent infiltration of personal data in the name of national security has resulted in mass human rights abuse. As the right to privacy is a fundamental right expressed in the Indian constitution, recent revelations on the unlawful use of Pegasus spyware by the Indian government procured by the Pegasus Project initiative question the regulations in place to protect human rights against spyware technology. Enactment of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill serves as the initial step towards protecting the constitutional rights of Indian citizens; however, further regulation is needed to ensure government accountability of surveillance use. As such, implications of the recently enacted legislation on surveillance and the consideration of additional regulations needed to prevent future human rights violations will be explored. To prevent such egregious rights violations in the future, India needs stricter laws limiting government surveillance powers and closing loopholes that enable spyware abuse.

The Utility of Spyware in War

The proliferation of spyware has led to revelations of human rights abuses by democratic governments and authoritarian states alike. The latest reporting on the global surveillance-for-hire industry details the utilization of military-equivalent cyber weapons, the likes of NSO Group’s Pegasus and Cytrox’s Predator, in international conflict, specifically the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The deployment of powerful spyware that is maintained and sold by a third-party company calls into question the rules of cross-border surveillance. What does the presence of Predator and Pegasus spyware in the Nagorno-Karabakh region indicate about the forthcoming uses of cyber espionage in times of war? Finally, a description of the current legal system and human rights safeguards in place and its shortcomings in the global spyware industry will be examined.

SCUSA Experience – Cadet Garland

This past November, I was privileged to represent Virginia Tech at West Point’s Annual Student Conference on U.S. Affairs (SCUSA). The conference started in 1949 and has consistently invited students from across the United States and the globe to have meaningful, guided discussions on how to address chosen topics in American foreign policy. This year, in 2022, was the first return to the conference’s normalcy since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Each iteration of this event comes with a working theme to center discussions around. Our overarching theme this year was: “American Foreign Policy in an Era of Polarized Politics and Revisionist Powers ”. In attendance were over 200 students representing over 100 institutions pursuing roles in the military, political, and private sectors. I spent four days on West Point’s campus and had an incredible learning experience in regard to forming practical policy and networking with professionals across various fields of study.

CHATGPT vs Bard ON AI COMMON SENSE, RATIONALITY, AND MORALITY

Just as in the post last week comparing the answers of Bard to ChatGPT on the War in Ukraine this post picks up on the previous post examining ChatGPT’s answers on AI Common Sense, Rationality and Morality. As we begin to incorporate Large Language Models (LLMs) into our every day lives in the search boys of Bing and Google, it is important for us to understand both their potential and their limitations. These tools are not general AI. They do not inherently have common sense, rationality, or morality in a humanistic manner. Yet I would contend that the approximate and foster a pseudo common sense, rationality, and morality, structured on the content and the limitations of their coding. Because both models also learn from the user they are interacting with it will be increasingly necessary to verify that LLMs don’t lead us down rabbit holes of our own design. We must be careful that they are empowering tools rather than constraining or limiting human potential. It is too early at this point to make a definitive judgement on their future utility or potential for harm. Please read the responses by both LLMs below and feel free to comment with your thoughts below.