I’m relieved Siri AI isn’t trying to be a health coach

These are Optimizerweekly newspaper sent from On the edge chief inspector Victoria Song that dissects and discusses new gizmos and potions that swear they will change your life. This week’s issue is a special first edition The Verge’s Image from WWDC. You can expect our next edition at its regular time next Friday. Choose Optimizer Here.

Apple doesn’t like to tell people what to do with their health. At least, it has been true with its approach to the Health app and the Apple Watch for the past 11 years. You can track a variety of metrics, such as steps, exercise, and sleep quality. You can also see long-term trends – like, if your heart rate has gone up or down over the past six months. Depending on the equipment you have, you may also be alerted if you are showing symptoms of shortness of breath, blood pressure, and heart rate. But aside from forcing you to close your rings or consult a doctor if the Watch shows any potential issues, it’s up to you to decide what to do with your data.

It is a deliberate choice, as I wrote recently Optimizer for Apple Watch. But while watching this year’s WWDC keynote, Apple’s performance was very different from what I saw at Google I/O. Finally, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis announced that his goal was to use AI one day to “end all disease.” (A brave word that it needs a story.)

Google believes therefore more in the AI ​​health that it wants defying the wrath of Fitbit diehards by highly promoting Google Health Coach as one of the the first selling point for the new Fitbit Air. Other players in the health tech space — Oura and Whoop in particular, as well as Garmin and Withings — have all added AI to their platforms, releasing new AI-powered innovations every few months. The new app can create exercise plans, categorize your meals, create macros for you, interpret your data, and, in some cases, review your blood work if you want to share it.

In contrast, health was not the focus of this year’s WWDC event. Heck, watchOS 27 didn’t even get its own dedicated section because the whole focus was on bringing back the company’s vision of intelligent Siri and Apple Intelligence. There was a brief mention of perimenopause treatment in the Health Tracking Cycle Tracking program. After the keynote, Apple’s website noted several changes to AI health and exercise in watchOS 27. Workout Buddy, the AI ​​exercise component introduced last year, will be available in Spanish, will include information on exercise readings, and will work locally on the Watch when your iPhone is nearby. There will also be more accurate treadmill distance algorithms, as well as some improvements to data synchronization with GPS maps. In addition, you can use the new Siri AI and Apple Intelligence tools for health management as you can with any other chatbot. For example, taking a picture of your food can now tell you the nutrients. (The limits of Siri AI in this regard will become clearer as I test it.) But this is also something you’ll have to figure out for yourself.

I wouldn’t be surprised if people interpret this as Apple lagging behind AI health and wearables. Before WWDC, Bloombergand Mark Gurman laid a convincing caseto say that Apple’s alleged Project Mulberry – which is known as an AI teacher and doctor – has been reduced. He said that along with the long-running Apple Watch and health officials are quitting or resigning. Meanwhile, screenless trackers like Whoop, Fitbit Air, and Oura Ring seem to be gaining popularity. Apple’s last major shake-up was in 2022, and since then it’s been an iterative update. According to many electronics experts and industry experts, Apple needs to surprise everyone or accept that the Series 12 will fall by the wayside.

I get this idea, but I’m not sure based on my testing more AI health trainers. I don’t see a lack of health issues for AI as such bad something. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Most of AI’s health benefits are doo–doo dogsso tedious to teach, and requires so much of your personal information to be effective that it sounds scary.

Of the health courses I’ve tried, Google Health is the most comprehensive, but the bar is within the ninth ring of Dante’s inferno. This is no good when the health issues are much higher than the AI ​​assistant keeping DoorDash order. The best way to use any health coach to date is as a “helper tool” between doctor appointments to help patients stay on track and communicate effectively with health care providers. The rush to implement healthy AI may resonate with investors, but in talking to peer reviewers and users, most find one or two useful things. Among these discussions are a laundry list of grievances and a list of proposed changes. I appreciate that this is a regular occurrence, but to this day, I feel a Pavlovian urge to moan every time I hear about another AI treatment.

This may sound like a winning quote. They are not. After asking several doctors and researchers to Optimizerit is clear that AI has been playing an important role in the development of health for many years. This is a role that must be played in the future of healthcare. For example, they found a vaccine he benefited in in the near future age from AI to control several development processes. What we I didn’t nails and how artificial AI good consumer health tracking is more robust than Google search.

Could the Health program use a refresher? Sure. It’s a bit loaded, but show me a health and fitness app that isn’t. (I hope so.) Do people crave faceless trackers because of endless data fatigue? Big yup, but the latest AI health information is not respected, summary of identification charts anyway. I can’t lie. If Apple doesn’t have a unique, genuinely useful feature in this space, I’m relieved we haven’t heard anything. I would love to no try a healthy Siri-flavored trainer this year.

How exciting would it be if Apple surprised everyone with a new, unseen, secret, and game-changing process where AI revolutionizes healthcare as we know it now? Duh. But that’s something I’m willing to wait for.

I am currently trying everything and anything under the sun to help with other things health story I’ve been dealing with it. Although I am a natural skeptic, I am always ready to be open-minded if I am proven wrong. However, it is painful when almost every attempt by the consumer is like a thinly veiled cash grab. And this is coming from someone who has some serious but not life-threatening conditions. I can only imagine how frustrating the barriers that exist for consumers of health AI can be for people suffering from chronic or chronic illnesses. Or problems that can be exacerbated by AI sycophancy or hallucinations, such as eating disorders or hypochondria. A successful implementation of AI health should be beneficial to those of us who are no in good health, too.

I can understand why companies don’t “miss the boat.” But take a moment to consider the current state of consumer technology? It’s hot shit. Many users are not happy, and now more than ever, it seems like AI is adding to health data fatigue rather than solving it. Maybe we could all do with Big Tech taking a minute or two to think about it.