Beyond the hype of AI as a panacea for women’s health
Researchers and clinicians are increasingly interested in the potential of AI to improve women’s health. Here, we argue that systemic harms can arise when AI is uncritically embraced as a revolution for women’s health. We focus on three intersecting concerns: (1) impoverished understandings of gender and sex, which are (2) fed uncritically into AI models surrounded by hype, leading to (3) harms rather than improvements in health. We call on health advocates and practitioners to critically examine what AI can and cannot contribute to women’s health.
Authors
- Madeleine Pape (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-5934)
- Jeffrey W. Lockhart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1519-9588)
- Annelies Kleinherenbrink
- Marion Boulicault
- Radhika Radhakrishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6009-7045)
- Ula Nikolaja Ratajec
- Maggie Delano
Institutions
- Swarthmore College (US)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (NL)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Women s Health
- Published
- 2026-08-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44294-026-00154-7
- Primary Topic
- Sex and Gender in Healthcare
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Radboud Universiteit
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek