Google denies it’s using private health data for AI research

Google's partnership with Ascension is intended to use artificial intelligence to find patterns that could help doctors, but some are concerned about privacy and protecting patients’ sensitive health information. — AP

Google’s top health and cloud executives said the company isn’t misusing health data from one of the biggest US healthcare providers, pushing back against news reports that have triggered criticism from politicians of the search giant.

Google employees only have access to patient information in order to build a new internal search tool for the Ascension hospital network, said David Feinberg, head of Google Health. No patient data is being used for Google’s artificial intelligence research, he added.