AI Health Coaching: Here is what Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington are up to

I think there are only a handful of use cases where AI can really transform the world. Making people healthier is certainly one of them - Sam Altman

Thrive AI Health, a new company by Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington, aims to create a personalized AI health coach. This AI coach would analyze a user's health data (biometric and behavioral) and offer recommendations for improving health habits.

What’s Thrive AI Health Coaching

Thrive AI Health will use the power of generative AI to hyper-personalize and scale behavior change across the five key and interconnected daily behaviors that govern our health:

• sleep,
• food,
• fitness,
• stress management and
• connection.

Given that behavior accounts for a significant share of health outcomes than medical care or our genes, by adopting healthier habits in these five behaviors, people can make dramatic improvements in health outcomes.

The Thrive AI Health Coach will be trained on the latest peer-reviewed science, biometric, lab and other medical data, as well as users' personal preferences and goals around the five key daily behaviors.

The envisioned platform could be integrated into various existing apps or platforms (workplace tools, calendars etc.).

What’s the big deal about this?

Apart from Sam Altman (and OpenAI) being involved in this, the big thing about Thrive AI Health’s approach is that AI health coach focuses on a narrow area (i.e. habit formation) - and isn’t trying to do big stuff (like solve for chronic diesases like cancer).

Given how AI hallucinates, and healthcare is last place where you want to see AI hallucinating, this approach is probably a reminder that gen AI isn’t yet fully ready for mission critical systems.

The AI health coach is taking a more proactive approach - i.e. of fixing behaviors than what every other AI healthcare startup is selling to VCs (which is that AI will solve everything).

Here are the big ideas shared by Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington, about AI health coaching (in a recent interview with Atlantic).

• Personalized health coaching: Thrive AI Health aims to provide hyper-personalized health coaching through AI. This coach would analyze an individual's health data and recommend interventions tailored to their specific needs and goals.
• Improving health outcomes: They believe AI health coaches can significantly improve health outcomes by prompting users to adopt healthier behaviors (e.g., swapping sugary drinks with water).
• Reducing healthcare costs: By preventing chronic diseases and promoting healthy habits, AI health coaches could potentially reduce overall healthcare costs.
• Scaling healthcare solutions: AI health coaches could offer basic health guidance to a wider population, potentially filling gaps in traditional healthcare systems.
• Focus on behavior change: The interviewees emphasize that the AI health coach would focus on behavior change, nudging users towards healthier choices through reminders and suggestions.
• Integration with existing tools: They envision the AI health coach platform being integrated into existing apps and platforms that people already use daily (workplace tools, calendars etc.) for seamless accessibility (via).

What’s your take on this AI Health coaching approach? Is it going to be a big deal?