The OpenAI Startup Fund and Arianna Huffington's wellness company Thrive Global have launched a new personalized, AI-powered health coaching startup.
Named Thrive AI Health, the new company will be led by DeCarlos Love, who has been a product management leader at Google since 2020 and oversaw teams working on wearables including Fitbit and the Pixel Watch, according to LinkedIn.
OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive Global and the Alice L. Walton Foundation are the new company's initial investors, according to a press release on Monday, though the organizations didn't disclose the size of the investment.
In an open letter published in Time on Sunday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington explained that the goal is "to build a customized, hyper-personalized AI health coach that will be available as a mobile app and also within Thrive Global’s enterprise products."
It's unclear how much the app will cost or when the company anticipates launching it.
Thrive AI will use OpenAI's software, Thrive Global's content and methods, and peer reviewed science, the press release said. It will also use its customers' personalized preferences, goals, behavioral data, biometric data, lab results and other medical data.
The app will focus on addressing five health areas: "sleep, food, fitness, stress management and connection," the press release said.
Thrive AI Health also announced that it has established "research partnerships" with Stanford Medicine, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine and the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute at West Virginia University.
It's not clear exactly how Stanford and other health institutions might utilize Thrive AI's tools but a representative for Stanford Health Care, Michael Pfeffer, said in a statement that "we are excited to explore the potential of AI Health Coach to advance these goals for the benefit of patients and providers alike."
OpenAI and Thrive Global didn't respond to a request for comment.
In June, the the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI signed a deal with Burlingame-based Color Health to develop an AI copilot as part of its efforts to push into healthcare. OpenAI also inked a deal with Moderna in April.
Questions have also emerged recently about OpenAI's security.
On Thursday, the New York Times reported that OpenAI's internal communications systems were breached by an unauthorized "hacker" who was able to get details about the organization's technology from employee chats.
The incident happened more than a year ago in April 2023 and was not disclosed publicly or to law enforcement, the NYT reported.
