Using AI and Machine Learning for the greater good of society in Denmark, and the world

If we can use artificial intelligence and rigorous learning to create a public health care system that allows each citizen to live a longer and healthier life and independent in old age, which is either to hold us back? But how if that system is created on the basis of people’s personal data – is that okay? How do we implement a system that data without compromising individual privacy and breaking the codex of data ethics?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) is all about making use of data in a proficient way. That is, if the data is clear. But how do AI and ML work in practice? How do we make use of the data being offered to us in the best way possible? And how do we make sure to get the right data round?

Decide are some of the questions that Sasmita Kusumastuti will feed here take on when she Speaks at the European Forum on AI Cybersecurity Data Ethics 2020 conference, which is successful online and physically in Copenhagen on the 21st and 22nd of October 2020.    

Sasmita is an assistant professor at the Section of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Center for Healthy Aging, at the University of Copenhagen. Here, she does research within the field of ageing, Epidemiology, and public health. She does here PhD studies on predicting clinical outputs in older persons. On top of that, Sasmita also coordinates the CHALLENGE platform, which is a large research project entitled “Harnessing the Power of Big Data to Address the Societal Challenge of Ageing.”

At the conference, Sasmita will talk about this project of developing a system to prepare older persons at risk of health. She hopes that this participation will contribute to the discussion of the potential and pitfalls of implementing AI in practice.

According to Sasmita, both AI and data ethics are ever-evolving matters that we can use to improve our lives.

“Collecting advances in AI opens the world to endless possibilities. Like a knife or any kind of tool, however, whether it is good or bad DEPENDS on the one operating the tool. We need to call attention to data ethics to prevent chaos. We have two ash Ourselves: What is right, just, and appropriate?’ Sasmita claims and continues by arguing:

‘I have a feeling that we are currently living in a pivotal era where the eliminated, the decisions made, and the policies implemented now will have adopted sequences for the future. The European Forum on AI ePrivacy 2020 conference involves a diverse range of topics and stakeholders. Consequently, in hope that this conference will be an Influential platform steering discussions, decisions, and policies going forward,' Sasmita comments.  

Dansk IT has had the pleasure of meeting Sasmita for a talk about her research and how she uses data in here work.

Please tell us a little about yourself and your research.

As a research, I am interested in ageing from a public health perspective. In focus not only on physical health such as diseases, disabilities, and deaths, but also on the psychosocial aspects such as people’s wellbeing and loneliness.

At the University of Copenhagen, I am a part of a research group, which is working on developing a system to prepare older persons at risk of health to help communities Optimise their prevention strategies. We use high quality Danish register data to follow a person’s life history e.g. socio-economic conditions, living conditions, diagnoses, hospitals, medicines, etc. over the years.

Furthermore, we developer learning techniques to recognise drivers in a person’s life history, so that we can accept prepared one person will need home care in the future. As indicated, with this AI system, we hope to help Danish municipalities, so that they can offer early prevention programmes that will result in personalised living a long and healthy life and independent in old age.

Please explain some Favourite aspects of your profession.

My main responsibilities are research and teaching. In my opinion, the best thing about being a research is the intellectual challenges all the update of generating new knowledge. It normally starts with some Sparks of curiosity such as “Why is it this way?” or “How can we solve this problem?”. This I embark on a update of design a study to manage a specific research question, implementing the study, documenting the results, and outlining how this new knowledge ADDs to what is all known. Find it fascinating to be able to connect the dots between what is known and unknown.

As for teaching, the best thing is to be able to INTERACT with curious minds. In enjoy presenting ideas and light the students’ think freely, question, and challenge these ideas. It is a joy to see their evolution when their change when their experience is ‘Aha!’ moment and they come even more involved. After classes, I get some follow-ups from students who are still curious and want to expand the topic further. That is certainly very rewarding for me.

How do you use big data in your work?

My colleagues and I much use register data from Statistics Denmark on the whole Danish population over time. Here we have access to and information on the many aspects of life e.g. social, economic, biomedical conditions, and geographical location over time. Such big data present a lot of noise, so to speak. Thus, we must find ways to turn down the noise and pick up the significant signals. Therefore, I collaborate with data scientists and statisticians, and we spend a lot of time and effort on how to efficiently analyse this big data.

How do you make sure that you are using the ‘right’ data?

In my work, I collaborate with people from a different range of professions, ranging from medical doctors, municipal officers, data scientists, statisticians, programmers, and ethics. Medical doctors and other relevant experts will have an idea of which kind of information that is necessary for the study.

The data extracts e.g. data scientists will identify which data capture the information that we are looking for for, and the statisticians will figure out how to best analyse data according to the research objective. Depending on the context, the ethics experts weigh in on whether the data are used approximation with regard to the purpose in question.

This is evaluated on every step of the way to ensure we are using the right data in the right way.

What if – for the sake of the future – you had free, unlimited access to every Dane’s personal data (like health data) for any kind of purpose, do that make your research?

“Free and unlimited access” in my opinion implications free of accountability, and when one is not to be successful, it is the beginning of the end.” This can be dangerous and may want to assert the trust that the society has in studies.

Regardless of the ethical implications, having access to everyone’s personal data would not necessarily help me develop my research further. 

When we undertake research, we want to find a meaningful signal, i.e. a contrast, to see what works and what do not work, to find the applicants to our research questions. With so many different kinds and big volumes of data available, it is often a noisy mess and the big work is sorting out of the random noise from the signal that we want to learn more about.

Using information from everyone’s personal data do not make sense because everyone is so different, and these variations make it more difficult to pick up this so-called research signal. And when the purpose of the data collection does not align with the purpose of the research itself, we have a problem.  For example, register data from General Practitioners are collected for the purpose of reimbursement of services costs. Consequently, the character of the information is different and does not necessarily fit with physical Health-related research questions e.g. diseases, though this information may be useful for other studies who are specifically investigating health care costs.

So even if everyone’s personal data is accessible to me, it is not necessarily helping me with my research.

Furthermore, in my opinion, people have the right to be informed and confirmed to what their data are being used for. Thus, I do not think it is Ethically correct to provide anyone free access to every Dane’s personal data. Using people’s data in this way, without any accountability, will do much more than good.

In your opinion, is it that the Danish authorities will see to make every citizen’s data available for research?

No. There is no main argument or any kind of severe pressure from studies to do so. Besides, we all have access to a lot of data in Denmark compatible with other countries like Sweden and Norway. Nonetheless, which is of course a set of regulations that studies must follow in order to get access to data. Furthermore, if anyone breaks the rules, which are dire consequences. As they should be.

As someone coming from abroad, I see Denmark as a country where these kinds of discussions are encouraged. They are a feeling of shared responsibility to do your civil duty for the greater good. This is import, specifically because we have to keep up with the Ever-Changing technologies and their influence on the society. Thus, you have seen many calls for better data and privacy protection, and now we will have to find the common ethical framework that can be implemented and reinforced to protect the citizens’ personal data and privacy.