Dr. Frank Ursin and Dr. Cristian Timmermann will give a lecture on medicine and artificial intelligence

On Monday, 3 February, at 4:15 PM, a lecture on medical artificial intelligence will take place in the University of Tartu Delta Study Building (Narva mnt 18-2048). 

The speakers are Dr Frank Ursin and Dr Cristian Timmermann from Germany. Dr Frank Ursin is a researcher at the Institute for Ethics, History, and Philosophy of Medicine at Hannover Medical School (MHH). Dr Cristian Timmermann is a researcher at the Institute for Ethics and History of Health in Society (IEHHS) at the University of Augsburg. They are in Estonia as part of Prof. Dr Theda Rehbock’s philosophy residency at Susimetsa Philosophicum. The lecture, titled “Levels of Explicability: How to Overcome Epistemological and Normative Barriers in Medical AI”, is organised by the Centre for Ethics of the University of Tartu, Department of Philosophy, and the Estonian Centre of Excellence in AI (EXAI). 

Lecture Summary 

The increasing deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical practice presents a dual challenge of enhancing clinical outcomes while acknowledging the ethical demands of epistemic hurdles for informed consent. We present explicability as an epistemic value rather than a self-standing principle for bridging this gap, emphasizing its normative and practical demands within medical ethics. We begin by delineating four distinct levels of explicability—disclosure, intelligibility, interpretability, and explainability—each tailored to address specific epistemic and explanatory hurdles encountered in the patient-physician-AI dynamic. Drawing on diagnostic AI applications in radiology, we evaluate how explicability enables both practitioners and patients to navigate the trade-offs between accuracy and understanding. Further, we critically examine the conceptual positioning of explicability in biomedical ethics. We defend the reductionist position in defending its instrumental function for principles like autonomy and non-maleficence and argue against the expansionist position, according to which explicability should be valued as a fifth principle of biomedical ethics.

The lecture will be held in English. A casual discussion in the café will follow the event. 

To attend either online or in person, please register here

This event is part of the Susimetsa Philosophicum Residency Programme, where fellows present the results of their research projects. The event is organised by the Centre for Ethics of the University of Tartu, the Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, and the Estonian Centre of Excellence in AI (EXAI). The Lecture is supported by the by the Ministry of Education and Research Centres of Excellence grant TK213 (Estonian Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (EXAI)).

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