Arianna Huffington and Sam Altman Launch Thrive AI Health to Revolutionize Personal Health Coaching

Arianna Huffington and Sam Altman Launch Thrive AI Health to Revolutionize Personal Health Coaching
Image credit: CNBC

Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are backing a new venture, Thrive AI Health, aimed at developing AI-powered technology to foster healthier lifestyles. The initiative is supported by Huffington’s Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, and aims to create an AI health coach to provide personalized advice on sleep, nutrition, fitness, stress management, and social connections.

Thrive AI Health has appointed DeCarlos Love, former head of fitness and health experiences at Google's Fitbit, as CEO. The venture counts strategic investors such as Walmart co-founder Helen Walton’s Alice L. Walton Foundation and has partnered with the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. However, the exact amount of capital invested remains undisclosed.

According to a Time op-ed by Huffington and Altman, Thrive AI Health plans to train its AI coach using scientific research and medical data, collaborating with partners like Stanford Medicine. The AI health coach will offer tailored recommendations and real-time health suggestions based on user behavior.

The approach contrasts with previous tech industry efforts, which often faced business, technical, and regulatory challenges. For instance, IBM’s Watson Health and Babylon Health, both of which promised revolutionary health solutions, eventually failed due to inefficiencies and lack of efficacy.

AI in health has also raised concerns about perpetuating negative stereotypes and biases. Studies have shown that AI models can reinforce false beliefs about biological differences between different racial groups, misleading even trained clinicians.

Huffington and Altman emphasize that Thrive AI Health aims to democratize health coaching while addressing health inequities securely and sensitively. They have appointed Gbenga Ogedegbe from NYU Langone’s Institute for Excellence in Health Equity as an advisor and stress that all research data will be peer-reviewed and user-controlled.

However, maintaining a balance between democratizing technology and ensuring patient privacy remains a challenge, as past incidents like Google’s DeepMind and recent data breaches have shown. Thrive AI Health will need to navigate these challenges carefully to succeed where others have failed.