The OpenAI and Arianna Huffington AI-based health coach doesn't seem to be in shape yet.
A brief filtered demonstration seems quite fragile.
The Thrive AI Health project, promoted by Sam Altman of OpenAI and Arianna Huffington, is still in a development phase, as revealed in an accidentally published demonstration. This tool, which is described as a health data tracker, appears to be a scaled-down version of ChatGPT focused on processing information from health wearables to create exercise routines.
Essentially, the functionality of Thrive AI Health resembles many existing health apps, as well as certain services integrated into Apple and Android mobile devices. The option to customize requests such as “Can you analyze my sleep patterns?” does not seem to represent a significant innovation in the field of personal wellness, as its promoters had anticipated.
During the summer, Thrive Global, Huffington's wellness technology firm, and the OpenAI Startup Fund announced the creation of Thrive AI Health with the aim of offering personalized health coaching backed by experts. In a joint article, both lamented that the new approach to artificial intelligence could help reduce chronic diseases by fostering healthier behaviors in daily life.
Personalized suggestions are supposedly generated based on peer-reviewed scientific research and biometric data. To lead the project, Thrive AI Health hired DeCarlos Love, a former product management leader at Google who had overseen projects like Fitbit and Wear OS.
Love stated that Thrive AI Health Coach has the potential to overcome the limitations of current AI-based solutions and language models, offering personalized and proactive coaching aimed at improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. However, since its launch, the company has not provided further information about its plans, and its website only offers a registration for beta access.
Recently, the only notable mention of the company was when Function Health, a personal health management platform, cited Thrive AI Health in relation to an agreement that allows members to share their data with the AI health coach for better recommendations.
Although the idea of using artificial intelligence to personalize health and wellness is promising, the implementation in a product may be more complex than Altman and Huffington anticipated. There are rumors of difficulties among developers in meeting the expectations for the next generation of AI models, which could indicate that Thrive AI is not as close to its full launch as its founders hope.
