According to Reuters, OpenAI is weighing building consumer health products including a generative AI-powered personal health assistant as the ChatGPT maker aims to move beyond its core offerings. The company hired Nate Gross, cofounder of physician network Doximity, as head of healthcare strategy in June and former Instagram executive Ashley Alexander as vice president of health products in August. At the HLTH conference in October, Gross revealed that ChatGPT attracts about 800 million weekly active users, many seeking medical advice. This healthcare push follows similar attempts by tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, all of which have struggled in the consumer health space.
The Health Tech Graveyard
Here’s the thing about consumer health tech: it’s basically a graveyard of failed ambitions. Google shut its health record service back in 2011 due to low traction. Amazon wound down its Halo fitness tracker business just last year. And Microsoft’s HealthVault platform never really caught on with consumers either. These companies had massive resources and user bases, yet they couldn’t crack the code. So why does OpenAI think it can succeed where others failed?
The ChatGPT Advantage
OpenAI does have one massive advantage that previous attempts didn’t: 800 million weekly users already coming to ChatGPT for medical advice. That’s an established behavior pattern they can potentially monetize. But there’s a huge difference between casual medical queries and building actual health products that people trust with sensitive data. The regulatory hurdles alone are enormous. And let’s be honest – do you really want an AI company handling your most personal health information?
Why Those Hires Matter
The hiring of Nate Gross from Doximity is particularly telling. Doximity successfully built a professional network for doctors, so Gross understands the healthcare ecosystem. Ashley Alexander from Instagram brings consumer product experience. This combination suggests OpenAI isn’t just throwing AI at healthcare – they’re building a proper strategy. But healthcare moves slowly, while tech moves fast. That cultural clash has sunk many previous attempts.
Beyond Core AI
This move represents OpenAI’s broader push to diversify beyond their core language models. They need new revenue streams, and healthcare represents a massive market. But they’re entering a space where trust is everything and mistakes can literally be life-threatening. It’s one thing to report on AI developments – it’s another to deploy them in sensitive medical contexts. I’m skeptical, but if anyone has the user base and AI capabilities to potentially succeed, it’s probably OpenAI.
