Sam Altman, Arianna Huffington Team on AI Health Coach App

OpenAI's Startup Fund and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global are launching Thrive AI Health, a new company developing an AI-powered health coach platform.

Using OpenAI's generative AI technologies, Thrive AI Health will provide personalized coaching for nutrition, sleep and stress management to help users improve their overall health and combat chronic diseases.

OpenAI’s Startup Fund and Thrive Global will lead the company’s funding. The foundation of Walmart heiress Alice Walton is also backing the AI Health Coach as a strategic investor.

Sam Altman's involvement in the AI coach is not surprising. Beyond disrupting the AI industry, he is considerably cautious about his body – including being a devoted vegetarian and avid exerciser. The OpenAI CEO said back in 2018 that he fasts for 15 hours a day.

His company’s backing of the AI Thrive coach comes after he invested $180 million in California-based anti-aging startup Retro Biosciences.

Arianna Huffington meanwhile co-founded the Huffington Post before launching Thrive Global in 2016, which uses technologies, including AI, to help users change behaviors and kick habits such as smoking.

Leading the new company will be DeCarlos Love, who most recently led AI algorithms, sensors and health and fitness experiences at Google for the Fitbit and Pixel Watch.

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“Thrive AI Health Coach is the product to solve the limitations of current AI and LLM-based solutions by providing personalized, proactive and data-driven coaching across the five daily behaviors,” Love said. “This is how it will improve health outcomes, reduce health care costs and significantly impact chronic diseases worldwide.”

The new AI Health Coach aims to reduce chronic diseases such as heart disease, lung cancer and diabetes, which are often brought on by poor lifestyle choices.

The AI Health Coach can provide personalized ways for users to improve their diet or help them get more sleep to avoid developing a chronic illness. 

Users can interact with the Health Coach through a mobile app or with health care providers that use Thrive Global’s enterprise products.

The app would generate personalized coaching for individual users, providing helpful nudges and recommendations to ensure they commit to their plan.

The AI coach itself will be trained using peer-reviewed science, relevant biometric and medical data combined with users' personal preferences and goals.

The new company has already struck research partnerships with leading academic institutions and medical centers, including Stanford Medicine and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University to bring the AI Health Coach to their patients and staff.

Related:OpenAI’s Sam Altman Invested $180M in Anti-Aging Biotech