OpenAI Startup Fund backs AI healthcare venture with Arianna Huffington

Thrive AI Health, a venture backed by Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, seeks to build personalized AI-powered health assistants. The goal is to provide tailored advice on various aspects of health, leveraging a health data platform and collaborations with partners like Stanford Medicine. DeCarlos Love, who led health experiences at Google’s Fitbit, is the newly appointed CEO, while the Alice L. Walton Foundation and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine are among the strategic investors and partners of the initiative. Huffington and Altman envision an AI health coach that provides precise, real-time health recommendations and behavioral nudges through smartphone apps and enterprise products.

Thrive AI Health faces significant challenges in a field fraught with previous failures and regulatory issues, including IBM’s Watson Health and Babylon Health’s downfall. The company aims to learn from past mistakes by focusing on thoughtful and secure use of AI, with a commitment to peer-reviewed data and user control over health information. Historical missteps like the Google DeepMind data controversy and recent data breaches underscore the critical importance of safeguarding patient privacy in the development of AI health solutions.

Advisors like Gbenga Ogedegbe from NYU Langone's Institute for Excellence in Health Equity are included to enhance credibility and address health disparities. Huffington and Altman emphasize a democratized approach to health coaching, aiming to mitigate biases that have plagued previous AI health models. The success of Thrive AI Health will be closely monitored by skeptics, as it strives to balance innovation with privacy and ethical considerations.