CAIHL read · Jun 5, 2026
Ofcom sets out AI safety and innovation strategy (2025/26)
Framework
What CAIHL does
Critical AI Health Literacy (CAIHL) is an analytical lens — Hugo Campos and Liz Salmi's 2025 National Academy of Medicine commentary, "Critical AI Health Literacy as Liberation Technology." It applies Paulo Freire's theory of critical literacy to health AI.
The central question CAIHL asks is whose interests does this AI actually serve? Four dimensions answer it: who is the primary user, where is it hosted, whose interests does it advance, and does it expand or constrain patient agency.
This deep-read separates the four dimensions on a single item from the day's scan, so you can see the specific structural shape of the AI in question — not just the bucket it landed in.
The four dimensions
How this item reads through CAIHL
Primary user
patient
Patients, families, and care partners are the primary users of this AI.
Hosting
institutional
Hosted inside a health system, insurer, or large employer. Access controlled by the institution.
Interests
patient-aligned
Interest structure prioritizes patients. Operates on a philanthropic, public-service, or advocacy footing.
Agency
expanding
Expands patient capabilities, supports their questions, increases their ability to act on their own values across and beyond health systems.
Editor's CAIHL read
One-sentence synthesis
Regulator-driven research into consumer trust in chatbots; institutional hosting with patient-aligned intent.
In the scan
How this item appeared in the daily scan
Editor's note: Outcomes-based regulation reads as a virtue and a hedge — the regulator declines to specify what the chatbot must or must not do, only what the consumer must or must not experience. The patient has to wait to find out which outcomes count.
Summary: Ofcom: The UK communications regulator publishes its updated AI strategy, opening a research workstream on consumer trust in AI chatbots and committing to technology-neutral, outcomes-based oversight across broadcasting, telecoms and online safety.
methodology
Limitations
CAIHL is a lens, not a verdict. The four dimensions are conditions of use — reassess them when a tool's business model, deployment context, or patient behavior changes. See the NAM commentary for the full framework.