The Right to Privacy in the Face of Medical AI: Between the Imperative of Innovation and the Requirement of Protection

Abstract

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the healthcare sector marks a major technological and civilizational shift, driving healthcare systems toward predictive and personalized medicine. While medical AI stands as an indispensable lever of innovation to optimize diagnostics and healthcare delivery, its technical performance remains intrinsically dependent on the massive exploitation and pooling of health data. This algorithmic dependency creates a sharp tension with the right to privacy and medical confidentiality, exposing inherently sensitive data to systemic risks of confidentiality breaches, opacity (“black box” effect) and discriminatory biases. Facing the limits of a purely static legislative approach, this paper analyses the need to build an agile and hybrid governance framework. Drawing on Moroccan law (Article 24 of the Constitution, Law No. 09-08, Law No. 05-20 on cybersecurity), Morocco’s international commitments (Council of Europe Convention 108), structuring European regulations (GDPR, Artificial Intelligence Act, European Health Data Space) and WHO and UNESCO standards, it argues that co-regulation is the most appropriate path to safeguard fundamental freedoms without drying up the flow of medical innovation.