3 October: AI in diagnosis and privacy
Saturday 3 October 2026
GS Paper 3 · 150 words · 10 marks
Introduce the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). How does AI help clinical diagnosis? Do you perceive any threat to privacy of the individual in the use of AI in healthcare?
(UPSC Mains 2023, GS Paper 3, Q5)
Set a timer for 7 minutes. Write your answer before you read anything below.
Open only after you have written
How to approach this question
What the question asks.
| Part | What to write |
|---|---|
| Introduce the concept of AI | One or two sentences. What it is and how it learns |
| How does AI help clinical diagnosis? | Two uses, each with a named example |
| Do you perceive any threat to privacy? | Yes or no in the first line of that section, then the reasons |
A shape that works in 150 words.
- Define AI in one or two sentences.
- Two ways it helps diagnosis, one named tool or recommendation.
- Say yes, the threat exists. Give two risks, one with a named case.
- End on the safeguards that apply in India.
What to avoid.
| Mistake | What to do instead |
|---|---|
| Turing and the history of AI | One line of definition, then diagnosis |
| "AI can detect diseases" with no example | Name the disease and the tool |
| Sitting on the fence about privacy | The question asks your view. Give it |
| Ending on "AI is a double-edged sword" | Name a law or guideline that limits the risk |
A model answer
Artificial intelligence is the ability of computer systems to do tasks that normally need human judgement, such as recognising patterns in images. Clinical AI learns from large sets of labelled patient data.
How it helps diagnosis
- Imaging. Software reads chest X-rays for tuberculosis. In 2021, WHO recommended computer-aided detection for TB screening. Qure.ai's qXR, an Indian product, is one such tool.
- Triage. Where radiologists are scarce, AI can flag urgent scans for review.
Threats to privacy
Yes, the threat is real.
- AI needs large volumes of health records, often collected for another purpose.
- Health systems are targets. The ransomware attack on AIIMS Delhi in November 2022 shut its e-hospital servers for about two weeks.
Safeguards
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, with its Rules of November 2025, makes consent the main basis for processing personal data. ICMR's 2023 ethical guidelines set rules on consent and accountability for medical AI.
Word count: 150.
Why this answer works. It answers the three questions in order. The privacy section opens with a clear yes. Most points have a named tool, case, law or guideline with a year.
Where it could be stronger. It could add the risk that anonymised records can sometimes be re-identified, if the word limit allows.