Does Google AI initiative DeepMind go too deep into NHS patient info?

The U.K.'s National Health Service has partnered with Google to have the company apply its artificial intelligence efforts, known as DeepMind, to the healthcare data of the 1.6 million patients treated at three London hospitals each year. AI and deep-learning efforts have met with ample enthusiasm from the healthcare industry, which often struggles to make sense and to benefit from its mountains of patient data. However, a recent article in the New Scientist questions whether Google has too free a rein over patient data via its NHS deal. The Google-NHS agreement states that Google cannot use the data in any other part of the business and that the data is to be stored by a third-party contractor. DeepMind loses access to the data when the agreement expires in September 2017. More