Study Finds Age and Sex Bias in AI Skin Disease Diagnosis Models
July 24, 2025
International study highlights demographic biases in AI models diagnosing skin diseases from images.
Key Details
- Researchers evaluated ChatGPT-4 and LLaVA on 10,000 dermatoscopic images of skin diseases.
- Study assessed diagnostic accuracy and fairness regarding sex and age groups.
- ChatGPT-4 showed better demographic fairness than LLaVA, which had marked sex-based biases.
- Both AI models outperformed traditional deep learning approaches overall.
- Calls made for considering demographic fairness before clinical deployment of AI in healthcare.
- Further research planned to evaluate impact of skin tone and other demographic factors.
Why It Matters
Addressing bias in AI diagnostic tools is essential to ensure equitable healthcare outcomes. This study provides critical insights and grounds for improvement in AI model development for medical imaging.