A new venture called Thrive AI Health is gaining support from Arianna Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund. The goal of Thrive AI Health is to create AI-powered assistant technology that can help people live healthier lives. The company plans to develop an “AI health coach” that can offer personalized advice on sleep, food, fitness, stress management, and social connections.
DeCarlos Love, who has experience with fitness and health technology at Google’s Fitbit subsidiary, has been appointed as the CEO of Thrive AI Health. The company has strategic investors like the Alice L. Walton Foundation and partnerships with organizations like the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine.
Huffington and Altman, the backers of Thrive AI Health, envision training the AI health coach using scientific research, medical data, and collaborations with institutions like Stanford Medicine. The goal is to create a virtual assistant that can provide real-time health suggestions based on individual behaviors.
While many tech companies have tried to develop AI-driven health apps in the past, some have faced challenges related to business, technology, and regulations. For example, IBM’s Watson Health division, which aimed to improve health outcomes using AI, faced efficiency and safety issues. Another startup, Babylon Health, failed to deliver on its promise of automating medical consultations and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
Additionally, AI technologies have been found to perpetuate stereotypes and biases in health research and medical practice. OpenAI’s chatbot platform, ChatGPT, has been criticized for reinforcing false beliefs about biological differences between racial groups. Biased AI models can even deceive trained clinicians, making it difficult to eliminate biases from these technologies.
To address these concerns, Huffington and Altman are positioning Thrive AI Health as a careful and thoughtful approach to health technology. The company aims to democratize health coaching, address health inequities, and prioritize user privacy. By involving experts like Gbenga Ogedegbe from NYU Langone’s Institute for Excellence in Health Equity and ensuring peer-reviewed research data, Thrive AI Health hopes to build trust with users and critics alike.
However, the company will face challenges in balancing the democratization of its technology with the protection of patient privacy. Past incidents, such as Google’s DeepMind accessing patient data without consent, highlight the risks associated with sharing sensitive health information with third parties. Thrive AI Health will need to navigate these privacy concerns while delivering on its promise to revolutionize health coaching with AI technology.
As Thrive AI Health moves forward, it will be closely monitored by skeptics and industry experts to see if it can avoid the pitfalls that have plagued similar ventures in the past. The company’s success will depend on its ability to build a secure, effective, and ethical AI health coach that truly benefits users and promotes healthier lifestyles.
