Apples Next Big Thing: An AI-Powered Doctor?
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Apple appears to be making its most ambitious move yet into healthcare with an AI-powered health coaching system, according to recent reports discussed on the latest episode of MacBreak Weekly. Host Leo Laporte, and tech experts Andy Ihnatko, Alex Lindsay, and Jason Snell dived into Mark Gurman's Power On newsletter, which revealed Apple's plans for "Project Mulberry" – a revamped health app coupled with an AI health coach.
Apple's Health Vision Takes Shape
Tim Cook has previously stated that Apple's "greatest contribution to society will be in healthcare," and these new developments seem to align with that vision. According to Gurman's newsletter, Apple has been working on non-invasive glucose monitoring technology for more than 15 years – a project that reportedly began during Steve Jobs' era. While this challenging technology continues to be developed, "Project Mulberry" could represent a nearer-term breakthrough.
The service would be powered by a new AI agent trained on data from physicians Apple has on staff. The company is reportedly opening a facility near Oakland, California, where physicians can shoot video content for the app. They're also searching for a "major doctor personality" to host the new service.
The Fine Line Between Advice and Medical Guidance
The MacBreak Weekly panel raised important questions about regulatory hurdles for such technology. As Andy Ihnatko pointed out, Apple's existing health features like atrial fibrillation detection required FDA approval, and even then, Apple carefully limits what health guidance it provides.
"Every Apple health feature like afib detection or sleep apnea detection – it's not that they finally had a breakthrough. It's that they finally got approval from the FDA," Ihnatko explained.
Alex Lindsay noted that Apple currently takes a cautious approach with health alerts: "If you're having anything odd, very quickly your phone will tell you that it can't tell you anything and you should just call your doctor."
Personalized Health Through Data
The hosts discussed how Apple's strength in collecting and analyzing personal health data could make AI health coaching valuable. Lindsay suggested that Apple's ability to track various metrics could lead to highly personalized recommendations:
"We're starting to realize that everybody's different," Lindsay said. "An app that starts to understand what you're like... along with being able to manage diet, fitness... can handle a lot of those things that are oftentimes just seen as too complex to deal with."
The service would likely include food tracking capabilities, with the AI agent helping users with nutrition features – potentially replacing several third-party apps in the process.
Potential Pitfalls of Health Tracking
Leo Laporte raised concerns about the potential downside of too much health tracking, citing research on "orthosomnia" – anxiety caused by sleep tracking devices. According to Laporte, "There's increasing evidence that sleep trackers, among other things, are actually dangerous for people. They make them sleep-obsessed, make them anxious, and don't actually improve sleep."
Jason Snell suggested that AI could potentially solve this problem by acting as an intermediary: "If you've got a really good sleep assistant or health assistant that's machine learning driven and sitting between you and the data... it could say your sleep seems fine, don't worry about it, instead of you just obsessing over the data."
The Future of Apple Health
While specific launch details weren't discussed, it's clear that Apple continues to invest heavily in health technology. Whether through non-invasive glucose monitoring or AI health coaching, Apple appears committed to transforming healthcare through its devices and services.
As Andy Ihnatko suggested, Apple's approach might ultimately be less about diagnostic chatbots and more about leveraging its enormous pool of anonymized health data to create targeted, helpful content: "By having such a broad and in-depth view of the health data of all its Apple Watch users, it knows what kind of video content it should be creating and putting in this channel and giving to people as resources."
Whether Apple can navigate the complex regulatory landscape while delivering genuine health improvements remains to be seen, but "Project Mulberry" could represent the company's most significant step yet toward fulfilling Tim Cook's healthcare vision.
