OpenAI and Arianna Huffington’s AI health coach sounds like he’s still out of shape
The AI health coach hyped by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington earlier this summer, because Thrive AI Health may not be ready to be the first off the couch just yet found in what appears to be a short and unintentionally released demo by TechCrunch. The discovered health data tracker appears to be a reduced version of ChatGPT, aimed at sharing information collected through your health wearables and used to design exercise routines.
If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s basically the same as a million other health apps, not to mention the services built into Apple and Android mobile devices. Personalizing (and misspelling) suggested prompts such as “Can you analyze my sleep patterns?” and “What were my [sic] heart rate of the past week?” doesn’t amount to as much of a revolution in personal health and wellness as Thrive’s backers envisioned.
Huffington’s wellness technology company Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund founded Thrive AI Health over the summer to eventually offer personalized health coaching with expert-level guidance. Altman and Huffington boasted in a shared op-ed that choosing AI could help reduce chronic diseases by promoting healthier daily behaviors.
The personal suggestions are probably based on peer-reviewed scientific research and biometric data. Thrive AI Health hired former Google product management leader DeCarlos Love as CEO, which made sense since he had overseen Fitbit, the Pixel Watch and Wear OS.
Coach Crunch
“Thrive AI Health Coach is the product that solves the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalized, proactive and data-driven coaching for the five daily behaviors,” Love said in a statement at the company’s launch. “Here’s how it will improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs and have a significant impact on chronic diseases worldwide.”
Since then, the company hasn’t said much about its plans, and the website offers nothing other than a beta access sign-up form for those interested in trying out the AI coach. TechCrunch noted that the company’s only recent mention was when personal health management platform Function Health Thrive cited AI Health as part of a deal where members can share their data with the AI health coach for better advice.
Using AI to personalize health and wellness makes sense, but integrating it into a product may be more difficult than Altman and Huffington realized. If rumors that developers are struggling to get the next generation of AI models to meet expectations are true, Thrive AI may not be as close to a full release as its founders hope.
