Federated Learning Can Protect Patients' Data In Hospitals

In The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo the choice between two pills in the iconic ‘Blue Pill Or Red Pill’ scene; take the red pill and Neo learns life-changing truths or take the blue pill and Neo maintains his blissful ignorance. We could adapt this choice to healthcare A.I. nowadays.

Would you be willing to contribute your personally-identifiable biometric data to a for-profit company that stands to gain millions off your information by developing a “red pill-powered” A.I. in the hopes of improving healthcare? 

If not, would you then be willing to let healthcare professionals use an undertrained, “blue pilled” A. I. to make decisions that will impact your well-being? This sick twist to Morpheus’ choice is a paradox that we are experiencing today with A. I. in healthcare: compromise our data for better, truth-seeking A. I. or keep our data for poorly-performing ones ignorant of real clinical data. And there are already examples to show for.