New lecture in the cycle organized with Barcelona Friends of UNESCO to discuss bioethical issues. On Wednesday 13 July, Antoni Baena, lecturer and director of the University Master's Degree in Digital Health at the Open University of Catalonia, will explain the main applications of chatbots in health, and the ethical conflicts that may arise from their use.

Even if you may not have realized it, you will almost certainly have interacted with a chatbot, a virtual assistant that collects and provides information. They may seem new but in fact they've been around for a while. The pandemic has seen an exponential growth in the use of artificial intelligence, but there has not been sufficient time to analyse and resolve the ethical dilemmas which can be associated with the generalized use of a technology that has the capacity to do something that previously was the exclusive domain of humans: the capacity to take decisions.

Chatbots increase the efficiency of health interventions, reducing costs and providing personalized care. However, the most important factor limiting their use is not the quality of the data they handle, collect, process or share, but rather the question of whether a robust, transparent ethical model is applied. In this lecture, we will analyse the possibilities for the use of this technology, the ethical dilemmas that its large-scale deployment may generate, and the potential solutions.

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Video available here

The new baccalaureate curriculum opens the door to greater autonomy for teachers. Newly created optional subjects, such as "Current challenges in Biology and Geology" and "Biomedicine", with few curricular guidelines from the administration, facilitate the incorporation of bioethics in several content blocks.
 
The research and treatment of cancer and diseases that affect the nervous system, the immune system, reproduction or the blood can be addressed in the classroom not just through specific scientific content, but also by promoting ethical debate to enable students to develop a critical spirit and their capacity to evaluate the risks, benefits and ethical implications of scientific activity in these fields.
 
How can we transfer these questions to the baccalaureate classroom? Which ethical principles can be addressed in each of the thematic blocks? We will discuss this with a specialist in bioethics, a doctor, a researcher, a scientific communicator and a teacher.

With the participation of:
Núria Terribas, jurist, specializing in bioethics. Director of the Víctor Grífols i Lucas Foundation and of the UVic–UCC Chair of Bioethics.
Salvador Macip, doctor, researcher and writer. Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Leicester and of Health Science Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).
Carlos Giménez, biologist. Secondary school teacher, Col·legi Sant Gabriel, Viladecans.

Chairperson: Montserrat Boada, , biologist. Director of the TRA laboratories and Head of the Biology Section of Dexeus Mujer..
 
Webinar in Spanish

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