Beijing to limit generative AI use in online healthcare activities

The municipal government of Beijing is set to restrict the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare sector, as authorities in the Chinese capital push new regulations covering the technology amid the growing interest in ChatGPT-like services.

New rules drafted by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission would make it “strictly prohibited” to use AI for automatically generating medical prescriptions, according to a report on Monday by the Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party’s municipal committee in the nation’s capital. The commission is soliciting public feedback on the proposed regulation until the middle of September.

The regulation, which provides 41 rules covering various online healthcare activities, also stipulated that medical personnel in this sector are required to have professional qualifications, approval from recognised medical institutions and more than three years of clinical work experience.

“Artificial intelligence software shall not replace the doctors to provide diagnosis and treatment services,” said the draft regulation, the passage of which would mark the first time a local government explicitly limits the use of generative AI in healthcare after the central authorities announced such restrictions in 2022.

Generative AI refers to algorithms, such as those behind ChatGPT and similar services, that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations and videos.

The latest initiative by Beijing’s municipal government reflects the sweeping disruptions brought by generative AI technology to traditional occupations and industries in China.

While Chinese state media has drummed up support for generative AI development for its potential to help drive economic growth and become a useful daily tool, government authorities have maintained caution about its risks and asserted regulation.

New national regulations on generative AI that were jointly drawn up by seven Chinese regulators, led by the Cyberspace Administration of China, came into effect on August 15.

Under those regulations, providers of AI large language models (LLMs) and chatbots must “adhere to core socialist values” and not generate any content that “incites subversion of state power and the overthrow of the socialist system, endangers national security and interests, damages the image of the country, incites secession from the country, undermines national unity and social stability, promotes terrorism, extremism, national hatred and ethnic discrimination, violence, obscenity and pornography”.

In July, the Chinese government also set up a new government body that will be responsible for implementing a national standard for LLMs, which represent the technology used to train AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

Beijing’s health commission, meanwhile, will establish an online “diagnosis and treatment supervision platform” to supervise medical institutions involved in online healthcare activities, according to the city’s proposed regulation.

In addition, the commission will encourage the use of AI, big data and other emerging technologies in “conducting analysis and regulation” of online healthcare activities.

While China still has not allowed the domestic roll-out of any ChatGPT-like services in the consumer market, the companies involved in generative AI projects have doubled down on the application of industry-specific LLMs, including in healthcare.

Beijing is already home to half of China-developed LLMs and hosts more than one-third of the country’s core AI companies.

Tencent Holdings, Baidu, Huawei Technologies, JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post, have rolled out their respective LLM applications for wider adoption in various businesses.

China’s online healthcare market is expected to be worth US$311.5 billion by 2026, according to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com, on the back of factors such as the country’s ageing population and expanding internet penetration. South China Morning Post