VA Implements Enterprise-Wide Strategy to Ensure AI Trustworthiness

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced it has implemented a new artificial intelligence strategy to ensure the technology’s trustworthiness in executing the department’s mission.

The strategy, which was rolled out in late September, serves as an enterprise-wide ethical guide on how AI can be used to better deliver health care while protecting veteran information, VA said.

Gil Alterovitz, director of the VA National AI Institute, said the department wants to strike a balance between “innovation, safety and trust.”

“To this end, VA leadership, practitioners and relevant end-users will be trained to ensure all AI-related activities and processes are ethical, legal and meet or exceed standards,” Alterovitz added.

NAII is a joint initiative by VA’s Office of Research and Development and Office of the Secretary’s Center for Strategic Partnerships in VA. The institute conducts large-scale collaborative research and development aimed at using AI to take advantage of VA’s wealth of health care data.

VA’s strategy consists of four goals. The first involves the use of existing AI capabilities to improve veteran outcomes and experiences.

The second goal involves increasing the department’s AI capacity and capabilities by creating new ways to partner with third parties, in addition to actively supporting new research in academic journals.

The third goal is to increase veterans’ trust and confidence in AI by educating VA leaders and researchers on the principles of transparency, bias and explainability.

Lastly, VA said it wants to build on its existing partnerships with federal agencies and industry. The department said it already collaborating in areas such as technology sprints and research and data sharing.