DOI: 10.1136/bmjdh-2026-000098 ISSN: 3049-575X

Contested futures of AI ethics for global population health

James Shaw, Núria Vallès-Peris, Miquel Domènech

Ethical debate about artificial intelligence (AI) for health is fundamental to the good governance and long-term success of this group of technologies in healthcare and public health. Building on foundational contributions on this topic from the field of bioethics, we propose that interdisciplinary work on AI ethics should deepen the already strong engagements that exist with Science and Technology Studies (STS) to uphold core commitments of global population health. STS is an interdisciplinary field that specifically explores the meaning, development and governance of science and technology and offers enormous conceptual resources for AI ethics. We present a path towards deeper integration of STS and bioethics for an AI ethics that can more meaningfully address the most important issues presented by AI for global population health.