4. AI and Healthcare: Who's Actually Accountable When It Fails?

Where does accountability actually land when an AI system causes harm in a healthcare setting? And is the EU AI Act the compliance headache many organisations fear, or just common sense engineering practice by another name?

Season 3, Episode 4 features Antonina Burlachenko, Head of Quality and Regulatory Consulting at STAR, who works directly with healthcare, medtech, and AI product teams navigating regulated AI deployment across Europe and the US.

Antonina argues that accountability for AI harm too often lands on doctors and healthcare facilities rather than the companies who built the technology, and that the regulatory framework simply hasn't caught up with how fast the technology moves.

She pushes back on the idea that compliance is a documentation exercise, insisting instead that good compliance is just good engineering practice, organised. I press her on where explainability genuinely breaks down in practice, and whether the divide that matters is really startups versus enterprise, or responsible versus reckless development on both sides.

We also discuss why many high-risk AI companies don't yet realise they're subject to regulation at all, the risk of over-reliance on plausible-sounding GenAI outputs, the need to preserve human judgement alongside machine prediction, and what it would take for industry, regulators, and universities to actually build AI governance together rather than in isolated.

AI Ethics Now

Exploring the ethical dilemmas of AI in Higher Education and beyond.

A University of Warwick IATL Podcast

This podcast series was developed by Dr Tom Ritchie and Dr Jennie Mills, the module leads of The AI Revolution: Ethics, Technology and Society at the University of Warwick. The ⁠ module explores the history, current state, and potential futures of artificial intelligence, examining its profound impact on society, individuals, and the very definition of 'humanness.'

This podcast was initially designed to provide a deeper dive into the key themes explored each week in class. We want to share the discussions we have had to help offer a broader, interdisciplinary perspective on the ethical and societal implications of artificial intelligence to a wider audience.

Join each fortnight for new critical conversations on AI Ethics with local, national, and international experts.

We will discuss:

• Ethical Dimensions of AI: Fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability
• Societal Implications: How AI is transforming industries, economies, and our understanding of humanity
• The Future of AI: Potential benefits, risks, and shaping a future where AI serves humanity

If you want to join the podcast as a guest, contact [email protected]