Top federal officials withdraw from AI in Health Coalition

TBiden administration officials have withdrawn from an industry body created to set safety standards and frameworks for evaluating how artificial intelligence models are used in health care.

Micky Tripathi, the national coordinator for health information technology and acting director of AI at the Department of Health and Human Services, and Troy Tazbaz, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Digital Health Center of Excellence, have resigned as nonvoting members of the Coalition for Health AI board just four months after joining, CHAI confirmed to STAT. Tripathi and Tazbaz were the “federal liaisons” on CHAI’s board, who were supposed to work alongside industry on new safety barriers.

In a statement to STAT through the national coordinator’s press office, Tripathi said his duties at HHS put him in “situations that could present conflicts, so we felt it was best for me to step down.” Tripathi also leads HHS’s AI Task Force, created as part of a White House executive order on the safe use of AI.