Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman have announced their collaboration on a new AI-driven health startup, Thrive AI Health, aimed at revolutionizing personalized healthcare and wellness — at the potential cost of your privacy.
Decrypt reports that the announcement of Thrive AI Health, made through an op-ed published in Time magazine on Monday, marks a creepy new advancement of AI into the health and wellness sector. This initiative comes at a time when AI is increasingly being recognized for its potential to transform various aspects of healthcare, from early disease detection to personalized treatment plans — but also presents dangers to patient privacy.
Huffington, known for co-founding the Huffington Post and later launching Thrive Global, has been at the forefront of leveraging technology for improving health and productivity outcomes. “AI has become central to [our] mission to improve health and productivity outcomes, and I’m incredibly passionate about the opportunity to leverage AI to deliver hyper-personalized behavior change,” Huffington stated on Twitter.
The new startup, Thrive AI Health, is a joint effort between Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund. It aims to create an AI-powered health coach that will be integrated into Thrive Global’s existing platform and mobile app. This AI coach is designed to offer personalized recommendations and real-time nudges to users, focusing on five key behaviors: sleep, nutrition, physical activity, stress reduction, and overall well-being.
At the helm of Thrive AI Health will be DeCarlos Love, who brings extensive experience from his previous roles at tech giants Google and Apple, where he worked on AI, sensors, and health and fitness wearables. This appointment signals the startup’s intention to blend cutting-edge technology with health expertise.
The core technology behind Thrive AI Health leverages generative AI to create highly personalized behavior change strategies. As described by Altman and Huffington in their op-ed, “It will learn your preferences and patterns across the five behaviors: what conditions allow you to get quality sleep; which foods you love and don’t love; how and when you’re most likely to walk, move, and stretch; and the most effective ways you can reduce stress.” This level of personalization, combined with the AI’s ability to retain long-term memory, promises to create a comprehensive and tailored health coaching experience.
The startup has already garnered support from notable institutions and investors. The Alice L. Walton Foundation is reported to be a strategic investor, and collaborations with academic institutions and medical centers, including Stanford Medicine, are in the works.
Read more at Decrypt here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
