Responsible and Trustworthy Generative AI Use in Canadian Public Health: A Policy Scan and Content Analysis of Organizational Public Health Policies

Introduction The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into public health presents both opportunities and challenges, particularly regarding equity, human oversight, governance, and the environmental impact of its development and use. Despite its growing use, the policy infrastructure guiding GenAI in public health remains underdeveloped. Methods This study conducted a policy scan and content analysis to identify and analyze organizational policies across local, provincial, federal, and international levels that address the use of GenAI in Canadian public health contexts. A content analysis was used to identify trends and gaps across policy focus, governance objectives and approach, ethical considerations and risk mitigation, and implementation and sustainability considerations. Results Fourteen relevant policies were identified. While the majority addressed data privacy (86%), ethical governance (71%), transparency (86%), and fairness and bias (64%), most adopted a sa