The emergence of agentic AI marks a new phase in the digital transformation of healthcare. Distinct from conventional generative AI, agentic AI systems are capable of autonomous, goal-directed actions and complex task coordination. They promise to support or even collaborate with clinicians and patients in increasingly independent ways. While agentic AI raises familiar moral concerns regarding safety, accountability, and bias, this article focuses on a less explored dimension: its capacity to transform the moral fabric of healthcare itself. Drawing on the framework of techno-moral change and the three domains of decision, relation and perception, we investigate how agentic AI might reshape the patient-physician relationship and reconfigure core concepts of medical morality. We argue that these shifts, while not fully predictable, demand ethical attention before widespread deployment. Ultimately, the paper calls for integrating ethical foresight into the design and use of agentic AI.
翻译:代理式AI的出现标志着医疗健康领域数字化转型进入新阶段。与传统的生成式AI不同,代理式AI系统能够执行自主的、目标导向的行动并进行复杂的任务协调。它们有望以日益独立的方式支持甚至协同临床医生和患者开展工作。尽管代理式AI引发了关于安全性、责任归属和偏见等常见的道德关切,但本文聚焦于一个较少被探讨的维度:其改变医疗健康领域自身道德结构的能力。借鉴技术-道德变革理论框架以及决策、关系和感知三个分析域,我们探究代理式AI如何可能重塑医患关系并重构医疗道德的核心概念。我们认为,尽管这些转变尚无法完全预测,但在广泛部署之前亟需伦理层面的审慎关注。本文最终呼吁将伦理前瞻性融入代理式AI的设计与应用之中。