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

By Kylie Robison , a senior AI reporter working with The Verge's policy and tech teams. She previously worked at Fortune Magazine and Business Insider.

AI leaders are increasingly optimistic about the technology’s potential in the health sector, especially when it comes to personalized bots that can comprehend and address individual health concerns.

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.)

AI-powered health coaches have become a popular fad: Fitbit is working on an AI chatbot coach, and Whoop added a ChatGPT-powered “coach” to give users more insight into their health metrics. In San Francisco, health data obsession is a staple. You won’t go far without seeing someone wearing an Oura Ring or bragging about their sleep data from their Eight Sleep mattress.

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