OpenAI and Arianna Huffington Join Forces to Launch AI-Powered Health Coach

OpenAI Startup Fund backs AI healthcare venture with Arianna Huffington

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are throwing their weight behind a new venture, Thrive AI Health, that aims to build AI-powered assistant tech to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington's mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage venture fund closely associated with OpenAI, Thrive AI Health will seek to build an "AI health coach" to give personalized advice on sleep, food, fitness, stress management and "connection," according to a press release issued Monday. DeCarlos Love, who previously led fitness and health experiences at Google's Fitbit subsidiary, primarily on the tech giant's Pixel Watch wearable, has been appointed CEO. Thrive AI Health counts Walmart co-founder Helen Walton's Alice L. Walton Foundation among its strategic investors, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is one of Thrive AI Health's initial health partners. It wasn't immediately clear how much capital Thrive AI Health's backers have invested. We've reached out for clarification and will update this post once we hear back. According to Huffington and Altman (via a Time op-ed), Thrive AI Health's endgame is training an AI health "coach" on scientific research and medical data, leveraging a forthcoming health data platform and collaborations with partners including Stanford Medicine. Huffington and Altman describe a sort of virtual assistant on a smartphone app and in Thrive's enterprise products that learns from users' behaviors and offers real-time, health-related "nudges" and suggestions. "Most health recommendations at the moment, though important, are generic," Huffington and Altman write. "The AI health coach will make possible very precise recommendations tailored to each person: swap your third afternoon soda with water and lemon; go on a 10-minute walk with your child after you pick them up from school at 3:15 p.m.; start your wind-down routine at 10 p.m. since you have to get up at 6 a.m. the next morning to make your flight." Thrive AI Health is the latest in a long string of tech industry efforts to create health-focused apps with AI-driven personalization. Many have run up against intractable business, technical, and regulatory hurdles. IBM's Watson Health division, launched in 2015, was supposed to analyze reams of medical data -- far faster than any human doctor could -- to generate insights that could improve health outcomes. The company reportedly spent $4 billion beefing up Watson Health with acquisitions, but the tech proved to be inefficient at best -- and harmful at worst. Elsewhere, Babylon Health, an NHS-partnered health chatbot startup that once promised that it could "automate away" consultations with medical professionals, collapsed after investigations revealed that there was no evidence that the company's tech worked better than a doctor. Once valued at over $4.2 billion, Babylon filed for bankruptcy in 2023 -- ultimately selling off its assets for less than $1 million. In some cases, AI has been found to perpetuate negative stereotypes within health research and the broader medical community. For example, a recent study showed that OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, often answers questions relating to kidney function and skin thickness in a way that reinforces false beliefs about biological differences between Black and white people. Even trained clinicians can be fooled by biased AI models, another study found -- suggesting that the biases may be challenging to root out. To stave off critics, Huffington and Altman are positioning Thrive AI Health as a more careful, thoughtful approach to health than those that have come before it -- a way to "democratize" health coaching and "address growing health inequities" in an ostensibly secure, privacy-sensitive way. The company has named Gbenga Ogedegbe, director of NYU Langone's Institute for Excellence in Health Equity, as an advisor, and claims that the research data its products use will be "peer reviewed" -- and that users will have the final say when it comes to which info Thrive AI Health's products tap to inform its recommendations. But if history is any indication, it could prove exceedingly difficult for Thrive AI Health to strike a balance between "democratizing" its tech and preserving patient privacy. In 2016, it was revealed that Google's AI division, DeepMind, had been passed data on more than a million patients as part of an app development project by the Royal Free NHS Trust in London without the patients' knowledge or consent. Recent wide-scale data breaches like the UnitedHealth and 23andMe scandals show the danger inherent in entrusting sensitive health data to third parties. Perhaps Thrive AI Health will avoid the pitfalls of its rivals and progenitors. It's likely to be an uphill climb regardless -- and closely watched by skeptics.

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are building an AI health coach for you

OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global found Thrive AI Health to develop personalized assistant OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington want to leverage artificial intelligence to create a personalized health and wellness coach just for you. The two announced they are forming Thrive AI Health to bring AI-fueled expertise to healthy lives that are adapted to each individual. Huffington's wellness technology firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, which invests in young AI companies, are funding and setting up Thrive AI Health, along with strategic investors like the Alice L. Walton Foundation. The company's first healthcare partners are the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University. Thrive AI Health is seeking to employ generative AI models like those produced by OpenAI to provide personalized health coaching that improves health outcomes. The expert-level guidance will include advice on improving your sleep, eating, working out, managing stress, and even conducting your social life. The idea is that enhancing these interconnected behaviors will result in healthier habits for each person. Former Google product management leader DeCarlos Love will serve as CEO, and his background matches the new role. He previously oversaw Fitbit, the Pixel Watch, and Wear OS. It's easy to see the link as Fitbit devices and the Pixel Watch has experimented with coaching tips even if not from an LLM-based AI coach. There's clearly interest in the idea, however, as evidenced by the AI health coach embedded in the recently announced Oura ring. "Recent advancements in artificial intelligence present an unprecedented opportunity to make behavior change much more powerful and sustainable. AI has shown a remarkable ability to assimilate large datasets, extract actionable insights, recognize patterns, and deliver personalized recommendations," Love said in a statement. "Thrive AI Health Coach is the product to solve the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalized, proactive, and data-driven coaching across the five daily behaviors. This is how it will improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and significantly impact chronic diseases worldwide." Thrive AI Health will focus on mental health, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Improving daily life for the 129 million Americans affected by at least one chronic condition would be an obvious boon, especially as eight chronic diseases hit all-time highs in 2023. Thrive AI Health says it can reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases by promoting healthier daily behaviors through personalized AI coaching. The AI Health Coach will employ a personal context engine that processes each individual's condition and tailors recommendations accordingly. The AI will be trained on peer-reviewed scientific research, biometric data, lab results, and users' goals, the announcement claims. That includes Thrive Global's Microsteps methodology and content library. Of course, this kind of coaching, even personalized with AI, has a noticeable gap. What good are healthy recipes, exercise routines, and sleep suggestions when you don't have the resources to buy healthy food or when making that money means you no longer have time to make it, let alone work out and get enough sleep? The AI coach might as well say step one is winning the lottery or adding ten hours to each day. Still, even if all of the life coaching can't be applied, AI models make the personalized approach to health much easier. It could help with health outcomes overall, especially when the data from the coach is applied to doctor prognoses.

OpenAI Startup Fund backs AI healthcare venture with Arianna Huffington | TechCrunch

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are throwing their weight behind a new venture, Thrive AI Health, that aims to build AI-powered assistant tech to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington's mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, the early-stage venture fund closely associated with OpenAI, Thrive AI Health will seek to build an "AI health coach" to give personalized advice on sleep, food, fitness, stress management and "connection," according to a press release issued Monday. DeCarlos Love, who previously led fitness and health experiences at Google's Fitbit subsidiary, primarily on the tech giant's Pixel Watch wearable, has been appointed CEO. Thrive AI Health counts Walmart co-founder Helen Walton's Alice L. Walton Foundation among its strategic investors, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is one of Thrive AI Health's initial health partners. It wasn't immediately clear how much capital Thrive AI Health's backers have invested. We've reached out for clarification and will update this post once we hear back. According to Huffington and Altman (via a Time op-ed), Thrive AI Health's endgame is training an AI health "coach" on scientific research and medical data, leveraging a forthcoming health data platform and collaborations with partners including Stanford Medicine. Huffington and Altman describe a sort of virtual assistant on a smartphone app and in Thrive's enterprise products that learns from users' behaviors and offers real-time, health-related "nudges" and suggestions. "Most health recommendations at the moment, though important, are generic," Huffington and Altman write. "The AI health coach will make possible very precise recommendations tailored to each person: swap your third afternoon soda with water and lemon; go on a 10-minute walk with your child after you pick them up from school at 3:15 p.m.; start your wind-down routine at 10 p.m. since you have to get up at 6 a.m. the next morning to make your flight." Thrive AI Health is the latest in a long string of tech industry efforts to create health-focused apps with AI-driven personalization. Many have run up against intractable business, technical, and regulatory hurdles. IBM's Watson Health division, launched in 2015, was supposed to analyze reams of medical data -- far faster than any human doctor could -- to generate insights that could improve health outcomes. The company reportedly spent $4 billion beefing up Watson Health with acquisitions, but the tech proved to be inefficient at best -- and harmful at worst. Elsewhere, Babylon Health, an NHS-partnered health chatbot startup that once promised that it could "automate away" consultations with medical professionals, collapsed after investigations revealed that there was no evidence that the company's tech worked better than a doctor. Once valued at over $4.2 billion, Babylon filed for bankruptcy in 2023 -- ultimately selling off its assets for less than $1 million. In some cases, AI has been found to perpetuate negative stereotypes within health research and the broader medical community. For example, a recent study showed that OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, often answers questions relating to kidney function and skin thickness in a way that reinforces false beliefs about biological differences between Black and white people. Even trained clinicians can be fooled by biased AI models, another study found -- suggesting that the biases may be challenging to root out. To stave off critics, Huffington and Altman are positioning Thrive AI Health as a more careful, thoughtful approach to health than those that have come before it -- a way to "democratize" health coaching and "address growing health inequities" in an ostensibly secure, privacy-sensitive way. The company has named Gbenga Ogedegbe, director of NYU Langone's Institute for Excellence in Health Equity, as an advisor, and claims that the research data its products use will be "peer reviewed" -- and that users will have the final say when it comes to which info Thrive AI Health's products tap to inform its recommendations. But if history is any indication, it could prove exceedingly difficult for Thrive AI Health to strike a balance between "democratizing" its tech and preserving patient privacy. In 2016, it was revealed that Google's AI division, DeepMind, had been passed data on more than a million patients as part of an app development project by the Royal Free NHS Trust in London without the patients' knowledge or consent. Recent wide-scale data breaches like the UnitedHealth and 23andMe scandals show the danger inherent in entrusting sensitive health data to third parties. Perhaps Thrive AI Health will avoid the pitfalls of its rivals and progenitors. It's likely to be an uphill climb regardless -- and closely watched by skeptics.

OpenAI Startup Fund and Ariana Huffington's Thrive Global join to launch personalized AI health coach - SiliconANGLE

OpenAI Startup Fund and Ariana Huffington's Thrive Global join to launch personalized AI health coach The OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global, the venture capital fund run by Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington, announced Monday the creation of a new company, Thrive AI Health, that will build a new type of highly personalized artificial intelligence coach. Thrive AI Health will aim to provide hyper-personalized advice on health and wellness to individuals based on their everyday lives including sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management and "connection." According to a press release shared by Thrive Global, the objective of the AI coach is to help people adopt healthier habits surrounding these five behaviors because "behavior accounts for a significant share of health outcomes than medical care or our genes." Thus people can make dramatic improvements in overall wellness. OpenAI and Thrive Global did not reveal any details about the investment deal or how much venture capital was committed. DeCarlos Love, a product developer who most recently worked for Google LLC, will helm the company as chief executive. At Google Love led sensors, AI and machine learning algorithms across devices and platforms, this included Fitbit by Google Fitness, Pixel Watch and Wear OS. Before Google, he held product roles at Apple Inc. and fitness wearable company Athos. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Huffington wrote in an op-ed in TIME, that although AI has been touted as a way to save time and energy on productivity, it also has a place in our society for bringing about better health outcomes for people. This route has yet to be fully explored and it's about time that effective systems are put in the hands of consumers. "AI could go well beyond efficiency and optimization to something much more fundamental: improving both our health spans and our lifespans. Because health is also what happens between doctor visits," Altman and Huffington wrote. "In the same way the New Deal built out physical infrastructure to transform the country, AI will serve as part of the critical infrastructure of a much more effective health care system that supports everyday people's health in an ongoing way." Thrive AI Health intends to use generative AI to deliver personalized behavior change advice to its users and act as a tool for prevention and optimizing treatment for disease using personal context. Not only will it act as using insights into everyday behavior by guiding directly, but it will also work to gently nudge users toward healthier lifestyles. According to Thrive Global, the Coach will be trained using the latest peer-reviewed science on behavioral health, biometrics, lab and other medical data, alongside relevant user personal preferences and goals surrounding the five key daily behaviors. It will use these to help produce its insights and recommendations. "Recent advancements in artificial intelligence present an unprecedented opportunity to make behavior change much more powerful and sustainable," said Love. "AI has shown a remarkable ability to assimilate large datasets, extract actionable insights, recognize patterns, and deliver personalized recommendations. However, despite these technological advances, the current landscape of large language models still falls short of delivering a truly comprehensive and effective personalized behavior change and coaching experience. Thrive AI Health Coach is the product to solve the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalized, proactive, and data-driven coaching across the five daily behaviors." Thrive AI Health's vision is remarkable in its scope as the company aims to reduce the trendlines for chronic diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular illnesses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. alone around 90% of the country's $4.5 trillion in healthcare spending goes to the treatment of chronic illness and mental health conditions. As both of these conditions can be prevented or controlled through behavior, the presence of a persistent AI assistant capable of day-to-day coaching could help alleviate a great deal of pain and suffering for millions of Americans. To make this mission possible, Thrive AI Health has established research partnerships with academic institutions and medical centers that will bring the AI coach to their communities. These include Stanford Medicine, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University. Dr. Ali Rezai, director of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute said that he is looking forward to working with Thrive Global on this new AI-powered venture. "For the last five years, the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute has partnered with Thrive Global, conducting clinical research studies involving over 3,000 participants linking our Human Operating System and AI-driven real-time digital health insights with Thrive Global's behavior change methodology, microsteps and content," said Dr. Rezai.

Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington to Launch 'Hyper-Personalized' A.I. Health Coach

The unlikely duo hopes their new venture will aid nearly 130 million Americans battling chronic disease. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and media veteran Arianna Huffington are combining their passions for technology and health to launch an A.I. coach to assist those struggling with chronic disease. The new venture, called Thrive A.I. Health, is backed by Huffington's wellness startup Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture capital fund associated with OpenAI but doesn't receive funding from the A.I. company. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters "So much of the conversation around A.I. has been about how much time it will save us and how productive it will make us," said Altman and Huffington in a Time op-ed published July 7. "But A.I. could go well beyond efficiency and optimization to something much more fundamental: improving both our health spans and our lifespans." This isn't the first time the tech world has attempted to integrate A.I. into health solutions. Google (GOOGL) recently unveiled plans to use large language models to analyze Fitbit data in order to provide health advice, while OpenAI earlier this month began working with the startup Color Health to use A.I. for cancer screenings and treatment. Thrive A.I. Health is differentiated by its "hyper-personalized" A.I. health coach, which will be made available through a mobile app and Thrive Global products, as announced yesterday (July 8). Disease prevention and optimization is key for the nearly 130 million Americans suffering from a major chronic disease, said Altman and Huffington, who noted that 90 percent of the nation's annual $4.1 trillion in health care spending went into treating these conditions. Altman has a strong interest in wellness solutions The OpenAI Startup Fund, which had $175 million in commitments last year, has previously invested in health-focused A.I. startups like Ambiance Healthcare. The fund was launched in 2021 and temporarily led by Altman until May, when control was transferred to fund partner Ian Hathaway. Altman himself has a strong interest in wellness, according to the Time op-ed, which noted that he pursues activities like exercise and meditation to "deal with his stress and anxiety and be more able to stay in the eye of the hurricane." Huffington, meanwhile, is best known for co-founding the Huffington Post. She stepped away from the publication in 2016 to focus on Thrive Global, which utilizes media and technology for wellness solutions. Huffington has also explored health and wellness by authoring numerous books on the topic, including the 2016 The Sleep Revolution. In addition to lead investments from Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, which declined to disclose the amount of their funding, Thrive A.I. Health counts Alice Walton, the heiress of the philanthropic foundation of Walmart, as a strategic investor. The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine will also act as a health partner alongside Stanford Medicine and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University. The new venture tapped DeCarlos Love, a former product manager at Google focused on health and fitness experiences, as its CEO. Thrive A.I. Health will use biometric and lab data to learn personal preferences and patterns across the daily behaviors of sleep, food, walking, movement, stress management and social connection. By tapping into resources from OpenAI and Thrive Global, it plans to provide precise health recommendations tailored to each user that could range from nudging someone to swap a can of soda for lemon water to reminding them to take an afternoon walk. Using A.I. to enact daily wellness changes is just the beginning, according to Altman and Huffington, who in their Time article compared the technology's potential impact to Great Depression-era programs and reforms. "In the same way the New Deal built out physical infrastructure to transform the country, A.I. will serve as part of the critical infrastructure in a much more effective health care system that supports everyday people's health in an ongoing way," they said.

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are building a digital doctor | Digital Trends

In a Time op-ed published Sunday, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington announced they are teaming up to fund development of an "AI health coach" via the Thrive AI Health startup. The digital doctor would be trained on "the best peer-reviewed science" as well as "the personal biometric, lab, and other medical data" users choose to share with the company. "Every aspect of our health is deeply influenced by the five foundational daily behaviors of sleep, food, movement, stress management, and social connection," the duo wrote. "AI, by using the power of hyper-personalization, can significantly improve these behaviors." For example, the medical chatbot would try to learn what conditions lead to you having a good night's rest, your favorite foods, your exercise and movement habits, and how you most effectively reduce your stress. The result will be, "a fully integrated personal AI coach" offering "real-time nudges" and personalized recommendations. Recommended Videos Altman and Huffington go on to argue that "chronic diseases -- like diabetes and cardiovascular disease -- are distributed unequally across demographics, a hyper-personalized AI health coach would help make healthy behavior changes easier and more accessible." They note that 129 million Americans are living with such chronic diseases and that roughly 90% of the nation's $4.1 billion in health care spending goes toward their treatment, rather than prevention. The pair offer the example of a "busy professional with diabetes." Their health coach, which would be trained on the user's specific medical data, could provide reminders to take their medication, offer healthy meal options, and encourage them to exercise. They claim that "using AI in this way would also scale and democratize the life-saving benefits of improving daily habits and address growing health inequities." It's not clear, though, how those offerings are superior to setting reminders on your phone and Googling "healthier meals for diabetics" -- or, at least, superior enough that it outweighs the risks of handing over your personal medical records for OpenAI's perusal. There's also the ongoing issue of AIs "hallucinating" incorrect information in their responses. It's bad enough we're told to put glue on our pizzas but having an AI hallucinate when providing medical advice could easily lead to life-threatening outcomes. This isn't even the first time Silicon Valley has tried to build an AI health coach. Onvy offers a similar product for both iOS and Android that works across more than 300 fitness trackers, Google subsidiary Fitbit is reportedly working on an AI chatbot for its line of wearables, and Whoop already offers a ChatGPT-powered coach AI for its products.

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are working together on an "AI health coach"

OpenAI and Arianna Huffington are now jointly funding the development of an "AI health coach" through Thrive AI Health. In a Time magazine op-ed, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Huffington stated that the bot will be trained on "the best peer-reviewed science" alongside "the personal biometric, lab, and other medical data you've chosen to share with it." The company tapped DeCarlos Love, a former Google executive who previously worked on Fitbit and other wearables, to be CEO. Thrive AI Health also established research partnerships with several academic institutions and medical centers like Stanford Medicine, the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University, and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. (The Alice L. Walton Foundation is also a strategic investor in Thrive AI Health.)

New OpenAI-backed health-tech wants you on your best behaviour

Thrive AI Health will use AI to improve user health by encouraging changes in behaviour relating to sleep, food, fitness, stress management and connection. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and entrepreneur Arianna Huffington have revealed a new start-up called Thrive AI Health that wants to "hyper-personalise and scale" changes in user behaviour for better overall health. Funded by the OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global, a health-tech start-up founded by Huffington, Thrive AI Health is pitched as a health coach that "brings the power of behavior change to the urgent challenge of chronic diseases". Altman and Huffington wrote in an op-ed on Time this week that the idea behind the start-up is use AI for more than just efficiency. "So much of the conversation around AI has been about how much time it will save us and how productive it will make us. But AI could go well beyond efficiency and optimization to something much more fundamental: improving both our health spans and our lifespans," they wrote. "Because health is also what happens between doctor visits. In the same way the New Deal built out physical infrastructure to transform the country, AI will serve as part of the critical infrastructure of a much more effective health care system that supports everyday people's health in an ongoing way. These are some of the ideas behind Thrive AI Health." The platform will use generative AI to improve user health by encourage changes in behaviour relating to sleep, food, fitness, stress management and connection, with the hope these changes lead to "dramatic improvements" in health outcomes. DeCarlos Love, a former product leader at Google, will be the CEO of Thrive AI Health. Love has experiences in working on health and fitness experiences across Google products such as Fitbit, Pixel Watch and Wear OS. He previously worked at Apple and Athos. Other than the OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global, the Alice L Walton Foundation (named after and run by Walmart founder Sam Walton's daughter) will also invest in the company. Love said that recent advancements in AI present an "unprecedented opportunity" to make behavior change more powerful and sustainable. "AI has shown a remarkable ability to assimilate large datasets, extract actionable insights, recognise patterns and deliver personalised recommendations. However, despite these technological advances, the current landscape of large language models still falls short of delivering a truly comprehensive and effective personalised behavior change and coaching experience." "Thrive AI Health is the product to solve the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalised, proactive and data-driven coaching across the five daily behaviours. This is how it will improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and significantly impact chronic diseases worldwide." Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.

OpenAI and Thrive Global Launch Thrive AI Health to Tackle Chronic Diseases with GenAI

The company will be creating an AI health coach to provide expert-level health coaching to improve health outcomes and address health inequities, particularly in chronic disease management and improve lifespan. OpenAI is once again venturing into AI-driven healthcare, this time with New York-based behaviour change technology company Thrive Global. The OpenAI Startup Fund and Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global have announced the formation of Thrive AI Health, an entirely new company dedicated to creating an AI health coach to provide expert-level health coaching to improve health outcomes and address health inequities, particularly in chronic disease management. "Using AI in this way would also scale and democratise the life-saving benefits of improving daily habits and address growing health inequities," said Sam Altman and Huffington, stating that while those with more resources already access trainers and life coaches, a hyper-personalised AI health coach can make healthy behaviour changes accessible to everyone, especially those disproportionately affected by chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Led by former Google product leader DeCarlos Love, the Alice L. Walton Foundation is also backing the new company. The CEO brings extensive experience from Google, and Apple, and his work on childhood obesity programs. "This product will solve the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalised, proactive, and data-driven coaching across the five daily behaviours. This is how it will improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and significantly impact chronic diseases worldwide," said Love. Thrive AI Health's mission is to use generative AI to offer hyper-personalised health coaching focusing on five key daily behaviours: sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, and social connections. These behaviours impact health outcomes more than medical care or genetics. By promoting healthier habits in these areas, the AI coach aims to enhance both health spans and lifespans. The AI Health Coach will combine peer-reviewed science, biometric data, and user preferences to offer a transformative health experience. It will be powered by a unified health data platform with strong privacy and security measures. The platform will utilise Thrive Global's behaviour change methodology, Microsteps, and benefit from the latest AI advancements, including enhanced memory capabilities and a custom behavioural coaching model. The initiative has established research partnerships with Stanford Medicine, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. These partnerships aim to integrate the AI Health Coach into their communities and explore its potential to improve health outcomes. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also took to X to appreciate the move. However, this is not the first time that OpenAI is working in healthcare. Previously, it recently partnered with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology company Moderna to develop mRNA medicines. Moderna is developing a pilot program called Dose ID with ChatGPT Enterprise. This tool reviews and analyses clinical data, integrates large datasets, and visualises them. Dose ID aims to help clinical study teams improve data analysis and decision-making. It has also partnered with other health tech platforms like WHOOP, Summer Health, and more, to accelerate healthcare ambitions.

New Thrive AI Health Coach funded by the OpenAI Startup Fund

Thrive AI Health, a new company funded by the OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global, aims to transform health coaching through the power of artificial intelligence. The company's mission is to democratize access to expert-level health coaching, thereby improving health outcomes and addressing health inequities. By leveraging AI, Thrive AI Health seeks to bring about significant behavior changes that can tackle the urgent challenge of chronic diseases. Artificial intelligence has shown remarkable potential in various fields, and health coaching is no exception. The Thrive AI Health Coach will use generative AI to provide hyper-personalized and scalable behavior change across five key daily behaviors: sleep, food, fitness, stress management, and connection. These behaviors are crucial as they account for a significant share of health outcomes, more so than medical care or genetics. The Thrive AI Health Coach will feature an AI personal context engine that understands the user and generates personalized insights. It will offer proactive, multimodal, expert-level coaching, as well as unique nudges and recommendations tailored to each user. The platform will be built on a unified health data system with robust privacy and security measures, ensuring a transformative health experience. DeCarlos Love, the CEO of Thrive AI Health, brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at Google, Apple, and Athos. At Google, he led initiatives in sensors, AI & ML algorithms, and health and fitness experiences across various devices and platforms. His passion for health and fitness is further demonstrated by his work as a coach and his efforts in developing a childhood obesity program in Minneapolis. Thrive AI Health has established research partnerships with leading academic institutions and medical centers, including Stanford Medicine, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University. These partnerships aim to bring the AI Health Coach to diverse communities, furthering the company's mission of health equity. While specific pricing details for the Thrive AI Health Coach have not yet been disclosed, the company aims to make its services accessible to a broad audience. The AI Health Coach will be available through various platforms, ensuring that users from different demographics can benefit from its personalized health coaching. More information on pricing and availability will be released closer to the product launch. Thrive AI Health is poised to make a significant impact on health outcomes by leveraging the power of AI to provide personalized, data-driven health coaching. By focusing on five key daily behaviors, the company aims to address the urgent challenge of chronic diseases and improve overall health equity. With strong leadership, strategic partnerships, and innovative technology, Thrive AI Health is set to transform the field of health coaching. For readers interested in other areas, the advancements in AI and health technology offer numerous opportunities for further exploration. Topics such as AI in mental health, wearable health tech, and the future of personalized medicine are all worth delving into for a comprehensive understanding of how technology is shaping the future of healthcare. Learn more about the OpenAI Start-up Fund over on the official website.

OpenAI thinks a medical chatbot is the future of health care

In a Time op-ed published Sunday, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington announced they are teaming up to fund development of an "AI health coach" via the Thrive AI Health startup. The digital doctor would be trained on "the best peer-reviewed science" as well as "the personal biometric, lab, and other medical data" users choose to share with the company. "Every aspect of our health is deeply influenced by the five foundational daily behaviors of sleep, food, movement, stress management, and social connection," the duo wrote. "AI, by using the power of hyper-personalization, can significantly improve these behaviors." For example, the medical chatbot would try to learn what conditions lead to you having a good night's rest, your favorite foods, your exercise and movement habits, and how you most effectively reduce your stress. The result will be, "a fully integrated personal AI coach" offering "real-time nudges" and personalized recommendations. Altman and Huffington go on to argue that "chronic diseases -- like diabetes and cardiovascular disease -- are distributed unequally across demographics, a hyper-personalized AI health coach would help make healthy behavior changes easier and more accessible." They note that 129 million Americans are living with such chronic diseases and that roughly 90% of the nation's $4.1 billion in health care spending goes toward their treatment, rather than prevention. The pair offer the example of a "busy professional with diabetes." Their health coach, which would be trained on the user's specific medical data, could provide reminders to take their medication, offer healthy meal options, and encourage them to exercise. They claim that "using AI in this way would also scale and democratize the life-saving benefits of improving daily habits and address growing health inequities." It's not clear, though, how those offerings are superior to setting reminders on your phone and Googling "healthier meals for diabetics" -- or, at least, superior enough that it outweighs the risks of handing over your personal medical records for OpenAI's perusal. There's also the ongoing issue of AIs "hallucinating" incorrect information in their responses. It's bad enough we're told to put glue on our pizzas but having an AI hallucinate when providing medical advice could easily lead to life-threatening outcomes.

OpenAI & Thrive-backed "hyper-personalised" AI health coach is in the works. Should you be excited or worried? | Business Insider India

In a recent op-ed published in the TIME, CEO and 's pose as champions of affordable healthcare. Soft-launching the new company through the article, the duo speak of using to help people take charge of their well-being and make expert health advice accessible to all. Most notably, they suggest that AI could help improve "both our health spans and our lifespans". Thrive AI Health will primarily focus on promoting healthy behaviour, like the five foundational behaviours Sam himself swears by: getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, spending time in nature and meditating. Furthermore, this wouldn't just tell you to eat better or exercise more, but promises to take your preferences, your schedule and your health data into account. OpenAI's Whoop coach already exists while Google and Apple are also planning to roll out similar tools soon. Related: AI can identify clinically anxious youth based on brain structure: Study According to the TIME article, the AI will be trained on the "best peer-reviewed science". And here's where it starts to get tricky. Both peer-reviewed and 'under-review' scientific literature consists of inaccurate and confusing interpretations when it comes to human health. Being an ever-evolving field of academia, the studies coming out in this domain have always been subjected to cherry-picking of data and misinterpreting the findings. So, will AI be able to navigate this challenge, especially considering the recent episodes of AI hallucinations even among the most advanced large language models? AI definitely holds promise to make affordable healthcare a reality at warp speed, but how could we make it safe if the training data itself is ambiguous? It'll be a hot while before we purge our minds of the memory of a Google AI search result stating that it was perfectly normal for 5-10 cockroaches to crawl into your penis hole and that this was how they got the name "cock" roach. So forgive us if we don't jump with joy at the thought of relying on technology trained using LLMs for any sort of health advice. We asked Dr Marcus Ranney -- Longevity Physician, Founder of and formerly General Manager with Thrive Global -- what he thought about the limitations of using LLM-trained AI for healthcare. Human Edge, which provides wellness and fitness services, also employs generative AI tools. And Dr Ranney acknowledged that they had to deal with their share of AI hallucinations and inaccuracies. To tackle this little problem, Human Edge was taking the "man-in-the-middle" approach during training. Here, an actual healthcare professional would intercept the conversation between the AI and the user, and select the right answer from the options suggested by the tool. The other problem is that Thrive AI Health's responses will obviously depend on the user's input and what medical data they choose to share about themselves. While Altman and Huffington are thankfully playing it safe and only intend for this app to start off with generalised (and mostly harmless) tips, we do wonder if it could land some people in a soup simply because they forgot to share something or thought it inconsequential. A common misconception that many harbour is that such healthcare tools could replace healthcare providers. We can argue this point by saying that AI is only supposed to support the healthcare system and not uproot it. But in a country like India, where we tend to rely on the pharmacist's advice instead of a doctor's appointment to save time and money, over-reliance on AI healthcare tools could be a real problem. However, Dr Ranney stresses on how this could serve as the first tier of health advice. It would certainly also help reduce the burden of overworked doctors who are also busy battling the surge of misinformation on the internet -- cue the tiff between Indian actress and The Liver Doc. Read: Samantha Ruth Prabhu faces heavy backlash after recommending hydrogen peroxide inhalation to cure viral fever When someone as influential as the actress shares the "benefits" of inhaling hydrogen peroxide with her millions of followers, it is bound to make waves, no matter how dubious the source of the information may be. Talking about the barrage of confounding medical advice bandied on social media and its many dangers, the Human Edge CEO insists that a reliable AI health coach could actually be a much better source of information. Depending on how much you engage with it, this health coach will likely know every tiny detail about you -- from how many minutes you spend on your porcelain throne every morning to how many times you stayed up past your bedtime that week. And let's face it, not all of us are completely okay with this sacred information being made available to others. Altman and Huffington do seem to be particular about ensuring "robust privacy and security safeguards", but the technology will also rely on potentially several billion data points -- data from users. So the chances of a data breach, no matter how miniscule, do exist. As Dr Ranney said, we're going to need a lot of regulation to prevent something like this. That being said, if Thrive's AI health coach delivers on its promises, it's going to be a huge deal that revolutionises healthcare worldwide. While Dr Ranney did share his viewpoints from an industry perspective, he says he's very excited about Thrive AI Health -- and frankly, so are we (even if it didn't seem like it).