Distinguished Delegates,

It is my true honor and pleasure to welcome you to AMSA UNPAD Model United Nations 2017,
particularly to the council of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD)!

My name is Agatha Lydia Natania and I will be the chair of UNCTAD together with Naufal
Rafif Siahaan. I am studying International Relations at Universitas Katolik Parahyangan batch
2014. Model United Nations has become my interest since I was in High School, and I am glad
that we could learn how to do MUN together through AMSA UNPAD MUN.

The theme of this council is Artificial Intelligence in Medical Development. The rapid
development of technology and globalization has become two major factors which increase the
advancement of technology in developed and developing countries, particularly in the medical
sector. This phenomenon could be a breakthrough to help doctors in the practice of medical
treatments and in finding cure for the diseases. However, the artificial intelligence also poses
threats and risks towards the patients’ life because of error and technical problem from the
system. Furthermore, it may also harm the manpower who is working in the medical sector as
they might be replaced by this technology. Therefore, it is indeed an interesting topic to discuss
this issue from the lens of trade and development in UNCTAD.

I look forward to meet you this October and to see the fruitful discussion, debate and negotiation
in producing the best solution. See you in Bandung, delegates!

Best Regards,

Agatha Lydia Natania

agathalydia94@gmail.com
Dear Respected Delegates,

Welcome to AMSA UNPAD Model United Nations 2017, and welcome to the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development. My name is Naufal Rafif Siahaan but you may call me
Rav. I am currently studying Political Sciences in Universitas Brawijaya batch 2014. For this
year’s conference, I will be chairing you alongside Agatha in the UNCTAD.

For me, one of the most important aspects for a delegate to have is that you ought to have a
consistency, especially in sticking out to your country’s stance and fight for the interests.
Because what we are doing in MUN is modelling the real time United Nations, thus we have to
think and act, based on our allocated country. Even you should talk like a Russian if you’re
allocated Russian Federation!

Now, the world today is embarking towards the massive use of Artificial Intelligence, and in this
conference we’ll be talking it through the eyes of medics. However, we know that the Earth is
not flat, and countries have different capabilities. Thus the question is; how do we keep going
forward without leaving each other out? As medics are different with weapons, we should not
race and leave the others who yet have the capabilities as the ones who are steps further.

I look forward seeing you conquer the floor. Roll in and rule out!

Naufal Rafif Siahaan

naufalrafifs@outlook.com
A. Committee Background: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development or UNCTAD is a permanent

intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. As a part
of the UN Secretariat, it reports to the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social
Council but it has its own membership, leadership, and budget, it is also part of the United
Nations Development Group.

UNCTAD promotes the development-friendly integration of developing countries into

the world economy. UNCTAD fulfils this mandate through the three pillars of UNCTAD´s
work1:

a. Consensus building, by providing a platform for intergovernmental debates;

b. Policy-oriented analysis, by identifying key issues underlying the creative economy

and the dynamics of creative industries in world markets;

c. Technical cooperation, by assisting developing countries to enhance their creative

economies for trade and development gains.

(A.1. A Mind Mapping of UNCTAD Mandate)

1United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (n.d.). Mission. Retrieved from
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/DITC/CreativeEconomy/Mission.aspx
 UNCTAD supports developing countries to access the benefits of a globalized economy more
fairly and effectively, and it helps equip them to deal with the potential drawbacks of greater economic
integration. To do this, it provides analysis, consensus-building, and technical assistance as mentioned
above. This helps them to use trade, investment, finance, and technology as vehicles for inclusive and
sustainable development.

Working at the national, regional, and global level, it efforts help countries to2:

a. Diversify economies to make them less dependent on commodities,

b. Limit their exposure to financial volatility and debt,
c. Attract investment and make it more development friendly,
d. Increase access to digital technologies,
e. Promote entrepreneurship and innovation,
f. Help local firms move up value chains,
g. Speed up the flow of goods across borders,
h. Protect consumers from abuses,
i. Curb regulations that stifle competition,
j. Adapt to climate change and use natural resources more effectively.

Together with other UN departments and agencies, it measures progress by the Sustainable
Development Goals, as set out in Agenda 2030. It also supports the implementation of Financing for
Development, as mandated by the global community in the 2015 Addis Ababa Agenda, together with four
other major institutional stakeholders: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade
Organization, and the United Nations Development Programme.

While it works mainly with governments, to effectively deal with the magnitude and complexity
of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, it believes that partnerships and closer cooperation with
the private sector and civil society are essential. The goal of UNCTAD is prosperity for all, and to
enhance the creative economy for trade and development gains.

2United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (n.d.). About UNCTAD. Retrieved from
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/aboutus.aspx
B. Background of Issue

History of Artificial Intelligence in Medics

The earliest work known in medical artificial intelligence dates to the early of 1970s, where the
field of AI was about 15 years old and the phrase of “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” had been first coined
at a famous Dartmouth College conference in 1956. Early AI in medics (AIM) researchers had discovered
the applicability of AI methods to life sciences, most visibly in the Dendral experiments of the late 1960s
and early 1970s, which brought together computer scientists, chemists, geneticists, and philosophers of
science in a collaborative work that demonstrated the ability to represent and utilize expert knowledge in
symbolic form3.

During the 1970s, there was an explosive interest in biomedical applications of AI, which was
catalyzed in part by the creation of SUMEX-AIM Computing Resource at Stanford University4, and a
sister facility at Rutgers University, which took advantage of the nascent ARPANET to make computing
cycles available to a national (and eventually international) community of researchers applying AI
methods to problems in biology and medicine. Several early AIM systems including Internist-15,
CASNET6, and MYCIN7 were developed using these shared national resources, supported by the Division
of Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.

The general AI research community was fascinated by the applications being developed in the
medical world, noting that significant new AI methods were emerging as AIM researchers struggled with
challenging biomedical problems. In fact, by 1978, the leading journal in the field of AI, Elsevier, had
devoted a special issue solely to AIM research papers. Over the next decade, the community continued to

3Feigenbaum, E.A., & Buchanan, B.G. (1993). Dendral and Meta-DENDRAL: roots of knowledge
systems and expert system applications. Retrieved from
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:pj337tr4694/pj337tr4694.pdf
4 Division of Research Resources National Institutes of Health. (1980). The Seeds of Artificial
Intelligence: SUMEX-AIM. Retrieved from
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:kd321pr5751/kd321pr5751.pdf
5 Miller, R.A., Pople, H.E., & Myers, J.D. (n.d.). INTERNIST-1, An Experimental Computer-Based
Diagnosic Consultant for General Internal Medicine. Retrieved from
http://people.dbmi.columbia.edu/~ehs7001/Clancey-Shortliffe-1984/Ch8.pdf
6 CASNET. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://web.cs.wpi.edu/~dcb/courses/CS538/documents/2002/CASNET-slides.pdf
7 Introduction to Expert Systems:MYCIN. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://psy.haifa.ac.il/~ep/Lecture%20Files/AI/Secure/Download/Introduction%20to%20expert
%20systems%20-%20MYCIN.pdf
grow, and with the formation of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) in 1980, a
special subgroup on medical applications (AAAI-M) was created.

It was against this background that Ted Shortliffe was asked to address the June 1991 conference
of the organization held in Maastricht that had become known as Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
Europe (AIME). By that time, the field was in the midst of “AI Winter”, although the introduction of
personal computers and high-performance workstations was enabling new types of AIM research and new
models for technology dissemination. In that talk, he attempted to look back on the progress of AI in
medicine to date, and to anticipate the major challenges for the decade ahead. A paper based on the
conference was later published in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine.

In addition, having reviewed the field in 1984, Shortliffe and Clancey defined Medical Artificial
Intelligence as; primarily concerned with the construction of AI programs that perform diagnosis and
make therapy recommendations. Unlike medical applications based on other programming methods, such
as purely statistical and probabilistic methods, medical AI programs are based on symbolic models of
disease entities and their relationship to patient factors and clinical manifestations.

Artificial Intelligence was revolutionary. AI in medicine was largely United States-based research
community. Work originated out of a number of campuses, including MIT-Tufts, Pittsburgh, Stanford,
and Rutgers. These research communities had a bold vision of the way AIM would revolutionize
medicine and push forward the frontiers of technology, by any measure, their output in the first decade of
the field remains a remarkable achievement.

Throughout the 1980s, the output from what now had become a global research community was
steady and substantial. Europe, in particular, had developed a significant research community that
invigorated and broadened the scope of earlier research. However, it was not successful, if success is
judged as making an impact on the practice of medicine. A period of soul-searching and redefinition of
goals of AIM followed. Thus leads to communities questioning whether the goals of AIM are still valid.
At the heart of debate, sits a much wider and longer running debate on the relative merits of Pure vs
Application driven research. Both approaches have great merit, and both measure their success in
different ways. Pure research strives to push forward the boundaries of knowledge, whereas application-
focused work seeks to improve the processes that touch our daily lives. The fear grows that much of the
recent work in AIM falls between these two great camps and, as a consequence, has a limited chance of
making a substantial contribution to either8.

C. Core Issue: Development of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Instruments

Opportunities

New AI technologies can identify subtle signs of disease in medical images faster and more
accurately than humans. One example is the deep learning algorithm developed by Enlitic, Picture
Archiving and Communications (PAC) which detects signs of disease in medical imaging modalities
including MRI, CT scans, Ultrasound and X-Rays. PAC contextualizes the imaging data by comparing it
to large datasets of past images, and by analyzing ancillary clinical data, including clinical reports and
laboratory studies. As a result, Enlitic claims doctors may be able to achieve 50-70% more accurate
results with PAC compared to human radiologists working alone, and at 50,000 times faster speed.

Another key area of medicine where AI is impacting is in clinical decision-making, in particular,

disease diagnosis. These AI technologies can ingest, analyze, and report on large volumes of data, across
different modalities, to detect disease and guide clinical decisions. For example, Lumiata’s graph-based
analytics and risk prediction system has reportedly “ingested more than 160 million data points from
textbooks, journal articles, public data sets and other places in order to build graph representations of how
illnesses and patients are connected.” This new knowledge can help in understanding the multifactorial
basis of disease and guide the development of new treatments. Big data also has a role to play.
Complementary technologies such as ‘Smart Wearables’ have the potential to increase the power of
medical AI through the provision of large volumes of diverse health-relevant data, collected directly from
the user. The combined impact of these technologies will help us to move closer towards achieving
‘precision-medicine’ an emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention that takes into account
individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle.

Hospitals, doctors, and nurses are overworked and cost and time efficiencies are always being
sought. Automating elements of medical practice means clinicians will increasingly have more time to
spend with the patient on those tasks where human-delivered care is the key. Focus will be transformed
into working on more complex cases, clinical interpretation, and patient communication. These areas can
also benefit from AI input, and together should help the medical and technology community to address a
greater number of medical needs and overall improve the delivery of healthcare.

8 Coiera, Enrico W. (1996). Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: The Challenges Ahead. Retrieved
from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC116321/pdf/0030363.pdf
Risks

While the benefits of AI to improve healthcare should be looked forward, the adoption of these
technologies is not without considerable potential risks. The clinical setting, healthcare provision and
patient data necessitate the highest level of accuracy, reliability, security, and privacy. Consistent
accuracy is important to preserve trust in the technology, but AI is still in its infancy. Whilst AI systems
may have been trained on comprehensive datasets, in the clinical setting they may encounter data and
scenarios that they have not been trained on, potentially making them less accurate and reliable and
therefore putting at risk patient safety. As aforementioned, medical AI systems may work with consumer-
facing smart wearables, and use the data they generate. A recent study showed that the heart rate readings
provided by one of the most popular smart wearables, the Fitbit PurePulse Trackers, do not provide a
valid measure of the users’ heart rate and cannot be used to provide a meaningful estimate of a user’s
heart rate, and in fact differed from ECG readings by an average of 20 bpm.

The data collected by these devices is also sensitive and needs to be safeguarded with the highest
security standards. A study showed that 20 out of the 43 fitness apps analyzed included high-risk data,
such as address, financial information, full name, health information, location, and date of birth. If
worked from the premise that all personal data can be identifiable, then it is critical that all data used in a
medical setting is safeguarded. Given that there is an important distinction between clinical and non-
clinical use, and the fact that data from non-clinical smart wearables may feed into clinical AI systems, it
will be necessary to identify where clinical-level accuracy and reliability needs to be implemented.

Both accuracy and security are required to foster trust in these new technologies. A lack of trust
in AI systems may significantly impinge adoption of technologies that may otherwise offer significant
improvements in patient outcomes. Trust can be gained through greater transparency in how results are
achieved. For instance, how the AI system came to a recommendation that the patient should have a
mastectomy. Currently, this is a technological issue that the technical community is addressing, and so
solutions should come henceforth.

Addressing the risks posed by medical AI is important as technological development and

implementation ramp up growth. Industry estimates that by 2018, 50% of more than 3.4 billion
smartphone and tablet users will have downloaded mobile health apps. The accuracy, reliability, security,
and clinical use of medical AI technologies would need to be ensured through a combination of standards
and regulation. Existing regulatory frameworks would need to develop to address medical AI
technologies, which have their own ethical problems to contend with. Artificial Intelligence programs
may be able to learn and alter their recommendations in ways not intended or foreseen by their creators.
That, and the diversity of development approaches across the planet, poses challenges for current
regulatory frameworks that would therefore need to evolve to define guidelines and best practice.

The development of standards for data collection and testing of medical AI technologies should
be a community-driven effort, led by clinicians, industry, academia, and stakeholders. Dedicated research
and open-source development addressing the key issues would facilitate the growth of medical AI. A
comparable undertaking can be found in the related field of genomic medicine. The Global Alliance for
Genomics and Health brings together over 375 leading institutions working in healthcare, research,
disease advocacy, life science, and information technology, to provide recommendations and solutions to
mitigate the risks associated with the accumulation of large datasets of medical and genetic information.
This is very feasible, a ‘Global Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Health’ could collaborate with the
planned NHS ‘test bed’ sites, real world sites for ‘combinatorial’ innovations that integrate new
technologies, new staffing models and payment-for-outcomes. The NHS ‘test beds’ which are planned
over the next 5 years since 2016, would facilitate the implementation of AI technologies within clinical
settings. Furthermore, putting in place a mechanism to inform the relevant national and international
public bodies about the results and outcomes is also important9.

D. Past Actions

Documents

UNCTAD has conducted partnerships, meetings and other relevant measures in the sector of trade
and development by providing analysis, consensus-building, and technical assistances.10 Particularly,
UNCTAD has been supporting developing countries to play a greater role in the global economic sector,
which includes the use of trade, investment, finance, and technology to achieve inclusive and sustainable
development.11 There is no specific document issued by UNCTAD on the issue of artificial intelligence
on medical development, however UNCTAD has been actively working in the sector of trade and
development. Some relevant documents are listed as follows:

9 Hamid, Sobia. (2016). The Opportunities and Risks of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and
Healthcare. Retrieved from http://www.cuspe.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/09/Hamid_2016.pdf
10 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (n.d.). About UNCTAD. Retrieved

from http://unctad.org/en/Pages/aboutus.aspx
11 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (n.d.). About UNCTAD. Retrieved

from http://unctad.org/en/Pages/aboutus.aspx
 ∑ Trading into Sustainable Development: Trade, Market Access, and the Sustainable
Development Goals
∑ UNCTAD The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation in Ensuring Food Security
by 2030
∑ UNCTAD Findings on Services, Development and Trade
∑ Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for
Development (Addis Ababa Action Agenda)
∑ UNCTAD-WHO Joint Publication. International Trade in Health Services: A
Development Perspective
∑ UNCTAD: The role of science and technology in the achievement of the MDGs
∑ Implications of International Trade and Trade Agreements for Primary Health Care: The
Case of Service (UNCTAD series on assuring development gains from the international
trading system and trade negotiations)
∑ General Assembly Seventy-second session: Information and communication technologies
for development (A/72/64), Economic and Social Council 2017 session: Economic and
environmental questions: Science and technology for development (E/2017/12)
Other UNCTAD documents related to health, trade and development are available on the official website
of UNCTAD.

Summit

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and XPRIZE Foundation, in partnership with
UN agencies, such as OHCHR, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNICRI, UNIDO, UNITAR, and UN Global Pulse,
has organized the “AI for Good Global Summit” on 7-9 June 2017, in Geneva.12 The aim of the summit is
to promote the development of AI in addressing the issue of poverty, hunger, health, education, equality,
and the protection of our environment.13 Even though AI could be the answer to improve healthcare in
developing countries, several skeptical arguments still stand. For instance, the head of WHO, Margaret
Chan, stated that “medical decisions are complex, and rely on care and compassion. I doubt that a

12 International Telecommunication Union. (n.d.). ITU launches global dialogue on Artificial

Intelligence for good: AI for Good Global Summit aims to ensure that AI benefits humanity.
Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2017-PR11.aspx
13 International Telecommunication Union. (n.d.). ITU launches global dialogue on Artificial

Intelligence for good: AI for Good Global Summit aims to ensure that AI benefits humanity.
Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2017-PR11.aspx
machine will ever be able to imitate genuine human compassion.”14 She also questioned the use of a
clever system to diagnose illness in developing countries without the availability of doctors and nurses,
and without the existence of adequate water, electricity and medical supplies.15 However, the CEO of
XPRIZE expressed his positivity in the development of AI in several sectors, such as:

∑ creating personalized learning experiences for children with no access to formal

education in Tanzania;
∑ empowering consumers to make healthcare decisions with a medical Tricorder device;
∑ guiding advanced and autonomous robotic vehicles to explore the deep sea or to find their
way to the lunar surface.16

Interviews and Official Statements

UNCTAD has been promoting the development of artificial intelligence in several sectors,
including but not limited to health and agriculture sector. In January 2017, UNCTAD has conducted an
interview with Dhesi Baha Raja, a co-founder of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology (AIME).
He stated that the power of machine learning can be used to increase outbreak prediction, and multilateral
forums convened by UNCTAD can help spread the technology.17 AI through self-learning capabilities of
a trained machine can be used to understand astronomical amounts of data, and detecting disease trends
before an outbreak occurs.18 He explained that AIME plans to reduce the burden of the disease as well as

14 Wilks, Jeremy. (2017). UN Summit on AI: ‘The most significant technology we will ever create’.
Retrieved from http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/07/un-summit-on-ai-the-most-significant-
technology-we-will-ever-create
15 Wilks, Jeremy. (2017). UN Summit on AI: ‘The most significant technology we will ever create’.

Retrieved from http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/07/un-summit-on-ai-the-most-significant-

technology-we-will-ever-create
16 International Telecommunication Union. (n.d). ITU launches global dialogue on Artificial

Intelligence for good: AI for Good Global Summit aims to ensure that AI benefits humanity.
Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/Pages/2017-PR11.aspx
17United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). Q&A with Dhesi Baha Raja,

Epidemiologist and Chief Scientist, Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology. Retrieved

from
http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1436&Sitemap_x0020_Taxon
omy=UNCTAD%20Home;#1629;#Commission%20on%20Science%20and%20Technology%20for
%20Development
18 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). Q&A with Dhesi Baha Raja,

Epidemiologist and Chief Scientist, Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology. Retrieved

from
the economic impact through an artificially intelligent platform which is capable to report and to predict
the next disease outbreaks.19 This innovation can be used by the health professionals and government
officials to make decisions in the areas they should take actions. 20

At the opening of the 20th session of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology
for Development (CSTD), the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, stated that
technology advancement can bring benefits for a better world for all. He stated that “it is crucial that the
UN continues to make a solid case for the benefits of multilateral collaboration, openness, and the
transformative potential of technology.”21 Some of the advantage of the artificial intelligence in the food
production sector are:

∑ synthetic biology, for instance: CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to cure genetic diseases in
animals or develop new traits in plants;
∑ artificial intelligence and machine learning can enable precision agriculture;
∑ early warning systems can serve as climate-smart technologies for disaster risk reduction;
∑ mobile-enabled index-based insurance schemes can provide financial services for
smallholder farmers.22

http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1436&Sitemap_x0020_Taxon
omy=UNCTAD%20Home;#1629;#Commission%20on%20Science%20and%20Technology%20for
%20Development
19 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). Q&A with Dhesi Baha Raja,

Epidemiologist and Chief Scientist, Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology. Retrieved

from
http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1436&Sitemap_x0020_Taxon
omy=UNCTAD%20Home;#1629;#Commission%20on%20Science%20and%20Technology%20for
%20Development
20 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). Q&A with Dhesi Baha Raja,

Epidemiologist and Chief Scientist, Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology. Retrieved

from
http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1436&Sitemap_x0020_Taxon
omy=UNCTAD%20Home;#1629;#Commission%20on%20Science%20and%20Technology%20for
%20Development
21 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). UN makes a solid case for the

benefits of multilateral collaboration, openness, and the transformative potential of technology.

Retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1478
22 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2017). UN makes a solid case for the

benefits of multilateral collaboration, openness, and the transformative potential of technology.

Retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/pages/newsdetails.aspx?OriginalVersionID=1478
 In the sector of technology, UNCTAD has released a policy brief that endorses the benefit of
advancing technology. The use of robots can also contribute to efficiency gains in production and service
provision.23 However, the use of robots in developed countries may lead to the reduction of labour
sources from the developing countries. This issue is considered as one of the important issue to be
discussed in the upcoming UNCTAD meetings.

E. Country Blocs

Developed countries

As stated by the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, AI is a
new frontier for the health sector.24 However, the privilege to have access to AI is available most in
developed countries. McKinsey Global Institute published a document that provides data and statistics
related to AI. It is stated that in 2016, companies invested $26 billion to $39 billion in artificial
intelligence.25 However, most of the investment goes to the sector of high technology, automotive and
financial services, leaving the investment sector of education, health care, and travel in low adoption.26

Developed countries are expected to provide assistances on the development of AI to the

developing countries, based on the current condition in most developing countries that are in need of AI
to solve severe healthcare issues. In general, AI development in health sector in developed countries are
growing rapidly. However, the developed countries are expected to assist the developing countries first in
the AI development, before they could conduct trade and enhance the cooperation in AI development.

23 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2016). Harnessing Emerging

Technological Breakthroughs for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNCTAD Policy
Brief No. 45. Retrieved from http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/presspb2016d1_en.pdf
24 World Health Organization. (2017). Opening remarks at the Artificial intelligence for good

global summit. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2017/artificial-intelligence-

summit/en/
25 McKinsey and Company. (2017). Artificial Intelligence: The Next Digital Frontier? Global

Institute, Discussion Paper June 2017.

26 McKinsey and Company. (2017). Artificial Intelligence: The Next Digital Frontier? Global

Institute, Discussion Paper June 2017.

 (F.1 Artificial Intelligence: The next digital frontier?)

North America

Artificial Intelligence in the medical sector is highly advanced in the North America. For
instance, the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Inc. (AIM) has three products of AI, which are automated
cancer data collection, data consolidation and auto-abstracting, and biobank information management.27
On the product of automated cancer data collection, AIM uses the E-Path system, which is the “industry

27 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aim.ca

leading solution for automated real-time cancer diagnosis detection and reporting from hospitals and
laboratories to cancer registries, with a sensitivity/specificity exceeding 99%.”28 As another example, a
professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Regina Barzilay, teaches computer how to learn.
Together with Massachusetts General Hospital, they are applying artificial intelligence and machine
learning as an effort to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.29

Europe

The development of Artificial Intelligence in Europe is keep on growing. A society named The
Society for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIME) was established in 1986 and has the goals to:
“foster fundamental and applied research in the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to
medical care and medical research, and to provide a forum for reporting significant results achieved at
biennial conferences.”30 This society has been conducted a series of international conferences since 1987
in Marseille until 2017 in Vienna. Some agendas of the 2017 AIME Conference in Vienna discussed
about: Evolution of Prediction models in Medicine (Ameen Abu-Hanna), Latest speech and signal
processing for affective and behavioral computing in mHealth (Bjorn Schuller, Bodgan Vlasenko dan
Hesam Sagha), and Multiuser Proactive Hybrid CDSS for Antibiotic Management in a Hospital
Environment (Bernardo Cánovas-Segura).31 A number of other medical conferences is also being
conducted in Europe to discuss about the development of AI in medicine and other aspects of healthcare
issues.

Developing countries

Health issues and outbreaks such as Zika virus, dengue, occur in developing countries. Artificial
intelligence is one of the possible answer to prevent the spread of the outbreak in the future. The uneven
development of technological advancement among developing countries is one of the reasons for them to
build a stronger cooperation, especially in the health sector. Artificial intelligence in health sector can be
the “game changer”32 to improve the lives and the health care systems in developing countries. As an

28 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aim.ca

29 Tirrell, Meg. (2017) From coding to cancer: How AI is changing medicine. CNBC. Retrieved
from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/11/from-coding-to-cancer-how-ai-is-changing-
medicine.html
30 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIME). (n.d.). Presentation. Retrieved from

http://aimedicine.info/aime/
31 AIME17 Program. (n.d). Retrieved from http://aime17.aimedicine.info/images/PDF/AIME17-

Program.pdf
32 Hidary, Jack on Oliver Pickup. Instant diagnosis by smartphone: how artificial intelligence can

save lives. The Telegraph, August 8, 2016. Retrieved from

example, nowadays, more and more people in developing countries are using smartphones. Through the
development of artificial intelligence in the health sector, it is possible to invent a technology that could
examine blood, saliva and urine, give medical advice and prescriptions. This technology could
immediately tell if a person has a serious disease like zika, cholera, or ebola.

However, some developing countries are struggling with the limited financial and capabilities to
invent such technology. Even though developed countries are willing to provide guidance and assistances,
the developing countries still have to find their strategies in order to be able to develop the artificial
intelligence in health sector.

South America

Artificial intelligence has been used to solve public health concerns and anticipate outbreaks of
diseases (Zika and dengue fever). It is argued that South America is taking AI very seriously. For
instance, in Brazil, an NGO named Viva Rio and Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology (AIME)
has build a partnership to “analyses existing local government datasets in combination with satellite
image recognition systems to deploy low cost predictions of where we should expect greater incidence of
disease in an upcoming three months’ period.”33 Based on an analysis to 5 South American economies,
Accenture reported that AI has the potential to “add up to an entire percentage point to the region’s annual
economic growth rates by 2035.”34

Asia-Pacific

The awareness of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine in Asia-Pacific has been increased. Even
though the United States is leading the world with artificial intelligence, however other countries have the
upper hand in applying technical innovations to the field of healthcare.35 For instance, the use of AI in
healthcare is indeed important in China due to the massive shortage of doctors. The President of China,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/tata-communications/artificial-intelligence-in-
developing-countries/
33 World Wide Web Foundation. (2017). Artificial Intelligence: The Road Ahead in Low and

Middle-Income Countries. Retrieved from

http://webfoundation.org/docs/2017/07/AI_Report_WF.pdf
34 Ovanessoff, Armen and Eduardo Plastino. (2017). How Artificial Intelligence Can Drive South

America’s Growth. Accenture. Retrieved from

https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000Z__w__/cl-es/_acnmedia/PDF-48/Accenture-
AI-South-America.pdfla=es-LA
35 Yao, Mariya. (2017). U.S. Falls Behind China and Canada in Advancing Healthcare with A.I.

Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariyayao/2017/06/01/u-s-falls-behind-china-

canada-in-advancing-healthcare-with-a-i/#6d9adf29206a
Xi Jinping even regards artificial intelligence as a top national priority. 36 Based on this condition, a lot of
business opportunity for healthcare technology providers are growing in China, particularly because the
government is giving billions of dollars into healthcare. 37 Conferences about AI in medicine has also been
conducted in Asian countries. In January 2017, a conference named HealthTech Asia 2017 has been
conducted. The topics brought by the keynote speakers are about “how telemedicine and medicine
distribution platforms are disrupting the delivery of healthcare” (Lee Dentith and Tim N) and “virtual
reality as a ‘Digiceutical’: a new Vision for Digital Integrative Care” (Dr. Alex Cahana and Guangfei
Ji).38

Africa

A number of African hospitals has been using SOPHiA Artificificial Intelligence developed by a
health technology company named Sophia Genetics to “get up to speed and analyze genomic data to
identify disease-causing mutations in patients’ genomic profiles, and decide on the most effective care. 39
Another nonprofit company called Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon has launched a technology that is used as a
part of a cervical cancer prevention campaign in six African countries.40 The technology uses an optical
accessory that fits to a Android smartphone and optimizes the device’s camera, called as EVA (enhanced
visual assessment) scope, and can be used by healthcare professionals to examine women for early signs

36 Yao, Mariya. (2017). U.S. Falls Behind China and Canada in Advancing Healthcare with A.I.
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariyayao/2017/06/01/u-s-falls-behind-china-
canada-in-advancing-healthcare-with-a-i/#6d9adf29206a
37 Yao, Mariya. (2017). U.S. Falls Behind China and Canada in Advancing Healthcare with A.I.

Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariyayao/2017/06/01/u-s-falls-behind-china-

canada-in-advancing-healthcare-with-a-i/#6d9adf29206a
38 Healthtech Asia Event Schedule. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://healthtechasia.com/#schedule
39 IT News Africa. (2017). African hospitals embrace Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2017/03/african-hospitals-embrace-ai-to-trigger-healthcare-
leapfrogging-movement/
40 Sandle, Tim. (2017). Mobile AI technology boosts African healthcare. Digital Journal. Retrieved

from http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/mobile-ai-technology-
boosts-african-healthcare/article/491777
of cervical cancer.41 The use of artificial intelligence could serve as a model for smarter health care in
Africa and beyond.42

F. QARMAS

a. How should UNCTAD contributes in the development of artificial intelligence in medical sector in
developing countries?

b. What kind of program can be established to increase the investment and development of AI in medical
sector?

c. What is the possible solution to reduce the gap between developed and developing countries in the
trade of artificial intelligence?

d. How should UNCTAD responds to the potential threat of the reduction of labor sources as the
consequence of the use of AI?

41 Sandle, Tim. (2017). Mobile AI technology boosts African healthcare. Digital Journal. Retrieved
from http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-and-science/technology/mobile-ai-technology-
boosts-african-healthcare/article/491777
42 Champlin, Cary, David Bell and Celina Schocken. (2017). AI Medicine Comes to Africa’s Rural

Clinics. Retrieved from https://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/ai-medicine-comes-to-

africas-rural-clinics
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