Chat-IRB for LMICs: an opportunity for ethics review capacity-building and protection against ethics dumping, IRB shopping, and other exploitative research practices—a response to Moodley <i>et al</i>

Abstract

Compared with high-income countries (HICs), developing 'Chat-IRB'-application-specific large language models for research ethics review-may have different implications for resource-constrained Research Ethics Committees or Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). While certain concerns raised by Moodley, Malpani, and Reis-including resource challenges, reviewing research conducted in LMICs, and automation bias-are not entirely unique to LMIC IRBs, the hurdles they must overcome in developing a contextualised Chat-IRB will likely be greater. Crucially, Chat-IRB for LMICs presents a significant opportunity to strengthen ethics capacity and bolster oversight through: (1) stimulating greater investment in generating open-access, LMIC-centred research ethics scholarship that also serves as training data; (2) leveraging existing WHO or UNESCO programmes to develop an 'always available' training resource and review tool should international funding for ethics education and capacity-building be reduced or withdrawn; (3) mitigating inadequate human capacities by providing a 'minimal acceptable standard' of review, especially during time-sensitive matters; and (4) a national-level Chat-IRB as a centralised 'governance' mechanism and first-line defence against ethics dumping, IRB shopping, and other exploitative research practices. Taken holistically, purpose-built for LMICs, Chat-IRB represents a critical-but potentially unrecognised-opportunity for HICs to advance ethics capacity-building, and strengthen research oversight within LMICs.

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