The OpenAI Startup Fund and Thrive Global has recently announced the creation of a new company, Thrive AI Health, exclusively devoted to building an AI health coach. The company's mission is to use AI to democratize access to expert-level health coaching to improve health outcomes. This will also address growing health inequities by bringing the power of behavior change to the urgent challenge of chronic diseases.  

AI's Potential to Revolutionize Health and Medicine

As Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington wrote in an op-ed in TIME, "So much of the conversation around AI has been about how much time it will save us and how productive it will make us. But AI could go well beyond efficiency and optimization to something much more fundamental: improving both our health spans and our lifespans. Because health is also what happens between doctor visits. In the same way the New Deal built out physical infrastructure to transform the country, AI will serve as part of the critical infrastructure of a much more effective health care system that supports everyday people's health in an ongoing way. These are some of the ideas behind Thrive AI Health." 

AI-Driven Coaching for Lasting Change

Thrive AI Health will use the power of generative AI to hyper-personalize and scale behavior change across the five key and interconnected daily behaviors that govern our health: sleep, food, fitness, stress management and connection. Given that behavior accounts for a significant share of health outcomes than medical care or our genes, by adopting healthier habits in these five behaviors, people can make dramatic improvements in health outcomes. 

The Thrive AI Health Coach will be an essential tool for both prevention and for optimizing the treatment of disease through an AI personal context engine that understands the user and generates personalized AI-driven insights; proactive, multimodal, expert-level coaching as well as nudges and recommendations unique to each user across the five behaviors. They will all be powered by a unified health data platform with robust privacy and security guardrails to deliver a transformative health experience. The Thrive AI Health Coach will be trained on the latest peer-reviewed science, biometric, lab and other medical data, as well as users' personal preferences and goals around the five key daily behaviors.  

Harnessing AI and Behavior Change Expertise to Tackle Chronic Diseases

The new company will leverage resources from OpenAI and Thrive Global, including Thrive Global's leading behavior change methodology, Microsteps and content library. Thrive AI Health will also take advantage of the latest developments in AI, including enhanced long-term memory capabilities and a custom-developed behavioral coaching model with domain-specific customization, to empower individuals to take action across these five daily behaviors and improve health outcomes. 

The aim for the AI Health Coach is to finally reduce the trendlines on chronic diseases, which are skyrocketing around the world. In the U.S. alone, around 90% of our $4.1 trillion in healthcare spending — 17% of GDP, up from 5% in 1960 — is for the treatment of chronic and mental health conditions. A staggering 129 million Americans have at least one chronic condition, and in 2023, eight chronic conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, depression and diabetes, hit all-time highs. The status quo is unsustainable — a challenge that AI-driven hyper-personalized coaching is uniquely positioned to address. 

Given that chronic diseases — like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases — are directly related to daily behaviors but not distributed equally across demographics, the Thrive AI Health Coach will leverage the power of AI to reach underserved communities.  

Thrive AI Health has established research partnerships with leading academic institutions and medical centers which will include bringing the AI Health Coach to their communities.  

Source: PR Newswire