Frederica Onori addresses IPU webinar on 8 December 2025COPENHAGEN, 8 December 2025 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Artificial Intelligence Federica Onori (Italy) today addressed an Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) webinar on “Navigating health misinformation in the age of AI,” focusing on how artificial intelligence is reshaping access to health information and the responsibilities of parliaments in ensuring its ethical and rights-based governance.
The webinar brought together more than 200 participants from 69 countries – parliamentarians, experts and representatives of civil society – to explore how AI technologies are influencing public trust, access to essential health services, and the protection of vulnerable groups such as women, children and adolescents.
In her remarks, Special Representative Onori emphasized that AI is increasingly influencing how health information circulates and is understood, noting both the risks and the opportunities.
“AI has brought a new layer when it comes to the health-information environment,” Onori said. “Transparent, accountable and rights-based governance will determine whether these technologies strengthen public health priorities or inadvertently undermine them.”
She pointed to emerging risks associated with algorithmic recommendation systems, bias in training datasets, and cases where advanced models have cited retracted or unreliable scientific articles as credible sources. These challenges, she noted, reflect a broader governance concern that AI can amplify existing inequities if embedded in systems without sufficient safeguards and oversight.
At the same time, Onori highlighted the technology’s positive potential to support early detection of harmful content, provide culturally relevant health communication, and help public institutions better reach communities with accurate, accessible information – provided these systems are deployed responsibly and with proper oversight.
“AI will shape access to health for generations,” Onori said. “Parliaments have a decisive role in ensuring it strengthens – rather than undermines – essential services.”
She stressed the importance of safeguarding health information from distortion within digital platforms and underscored the need for strong institutional accountability – particularly in health ministries that increasingly rely on AI-enabled systems. These efforts, she said, must be complemented by sustained co-operation between parliaments, civil society and technical experts to ensure that AI-driven solutions remain trusted and grounded in community realities.
For more information on the work of the Special Representative on Artificial Intelligence, please click here.
