인공지능을 이용한 의료행위와 민사책임에 관한 고찰

The 4th Industrial Revolution is a key topic in today’s global economy as well as the Korean economy. The 4th Industrial Revolution refers to the next generation industrial revolution that combines the state of the art IT technologies such as artificial intelligence(AI), IoT, Big Data, and mobile in the areas economy and society to result in innovative changes. As AI is at the core of the 4th Industrial Revolution, products such as IBM’s Watson and Google’s deep learning based AI are already being utilized in the medical industry. However, many undefeated diseases remain and each human being embodies unpredictable variables. Moreover, as medical practice involves life of human beings and invasion of human body, it should be performed by experience and skills based on special knowledge of medicine. Thus, in Korea, only those medical practitioners who had received proper training and been granted with a government license are permitted to practice medicine. If AI is officially adopted to assist in medical practice having such special characteristics, questions are raised as to who shall be held liable, and what type of civil liabilities shall be available in the event malpractice in the medical area. This study analyzes the meaning of AI, areas where AI can be utilized, special characteristics of medical practice, and structure of civil liability. And then this study further analyzes whether legal personhood can be given to AI, civil liabilities available in the event of malpractice utilizing AI.