Artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for the modernization and global development of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), while raising challenges in data quality, ethical governance, scientific evaluation and international standardization.

The Hangzhou Declaration on the Global Development of Artificial Intelligence in Traditional Chinese Medicine, published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine (Volume 24, Issue 5), outlines nine guiding principles for the responsible integration of AI and TCM. These include preserving the theoretical foundations of TCM while encouraging innovation, prioritizing clinical needs and patient safety, strengthening ethical governance and data standards, advancing scientific evaluation, and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and international cooperation.

The declaration provides a framework for the safe, inclusive, and sustainable development of AI-enabled TCM, with the broader goal of contributing to global health.

University of East Anglia researchers have been investigating how virtual reality could one day help millions living with chronic pain.

Scientists combined artificial intelligence (AI) with eye tracking in virtual reality in a bid to create personalised drug-free treatment for chronic pain.

They found that tiny changes in pupil size and blinking patterns can reveal how hard the brain is working during virtual reality tasks. 

They hope their work could open the door to wearable systems that automatically adapt therapy in real time.