Apple's AI doctor
Therapy AI passes clinical trials
Apple makes leadership changes in AI
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Apple's AI doctor
Apple’s biggest contribution to society will be in health care, predicts CEO Tim Cook. The company’s current health initiative “is called Project Mulberry, and it involves a completely revamped Health app plus a health coach. The service would be powered by a new AI agent that would replicate — at least to some extent — a real doctor.” The service would be powered by a new AI agent. The effort has taken many twists and turns and has roped in other parts of Apple, including its artificial intelligence group. Development is now full steam ahead, with a release due as early as iOS 19.4. That update is scheduled for spring or summer of next year.
The idea is this: The Health app will continue to collect data from your devices (whether that’s the iPhone, Apple Watch, earbuds or third-party products), and then the AI coach will use that information to offer tailor-made recommendations about ways to improve health. The company is currently training the AI agent with data from physicians that it has on staff. Apple is also looking to bring in outside doctors, including experts in sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health and cardiology, to create videos. That content would serve as explainers to users about certain conditions and how to make lifestyle improvements. For instance, if the Health app receives data about poor heart-rate trends, a video explaining the risks of heart disease could appear.
Food tracking will be a particularly big part of the revamped app. That’s an area that Apple has mostly avoided, so far, though the current Health app does let you enter data for things like carbohydrates and caffeine. Apple is also working on features that would tap into the cameras on its devices, such as the one on the back of an iPhone. The idea is to let the AI agent study users’ workouts and give pointers for improving their technique. Jeff Williams, the company’s chief operating officer, is heavily involved. The work is a top priority — and almost the entire focus currently — of Apple’s health group....
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Therapy AI passes clinical trials
Dartmouth researchers conducted the first-ever clinical trial of a generative AI-powered therapy chatbot and found that the software resulted in significant improvements in participants’ symptoms. People in the study also reported they could trust and communicate with the system, known as Therabot, to a degree that is comparable to working with a mental health professional.
People diagnosed with depression experienced a 51% average reduction in symptoms, leading to clinically significant improvements in mood and overall well-being, the researchers report. Participants with generalized anxiety reported an average reduction in symptoms of 31%, with many shifting from moderate to mild anxiety, or from mild anxiety to below the clinical threshold for diagnosis. Among those at risk for eating disorders—who are traditionally more challenging to treat—Therabot users showed a 19% average reduction in concerns about body image and weight, which significantly outpaced a control group that also was part of the trial.
“The improvements in symptoms we observed were comparable to what is reported for traditional outpatient therapy, suggesting this AI-assisted approach may offer clinically meaningful benefits,” says Nicholas Jacobson, the study’s senior author and an associate professor. “There is no replacement for in-person care, but there are nowhere near enough providers to go around,” Jacobson says. “We would like to see generative AI help provide mental health support to the huge number of people outside the in-person care system. I see the potential for person-to-person and software-based therapy to work together,” says Jacobson....
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Apple makes leadership changes in AI
Apple Inc. is undergoing a rare shake-up of its executive ranks, aiming to get its artificial intelligence efforts back on track after months of delays and stumbles, according to people familiar with the situation. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has lost confidence in the ability of AI head John Giannandrea to execute on product development, so he’s moving over another top executive to help: Vision Pro creator Mike Rockwell. In a new role, Rockwell will be in charge of the Siri virtual assistant, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the moves haven’t been announced.
Rockwell will report to software chief Craig Federighi, removing Siri completely from Giannandrea’s command. Apple announced the changes to employees on Thursday following Bloomberg News’ initial report. The iPhone maker’s senior leaders — a group known as the Top 100 — just met at a secretive, annual offsite gathering to discuss the future of the company. Its AI efforts were a key talking point at the summit. Rockwell is currently the vice president in charge of the Vision Products Group, or VPG, the division that developed Apple’s headset. As part of the changes, he’ll be leaving that team, though the Vision Pro software groups will follow him to Federighi’s software engineering group. By tapping Rockwell, Apple is betting on an executive with proven technical experience. He has demonstrated the ability to ship new products and run an engineering organization with thousands of people. Rockwell has a knack for solving problems and often takes the role of evangelist for futuristic technologies.
Rockwell is known as the brains behind the Vision Pro, which is considered a technical marvel but not a commercial hit. Getting the headset to market required a number of technical breakthroughs, some of which leveraged forms of artificial intelligence. He is now moving away from the Vision Pro at a time when that unit is struggling to plot a future for the product. Over the last decade, Rockwell has been one of the few Apple executives to take a major hardware device from “zero to one” — industry parlance for conceiving a new product and bringing it to market. Inside Apple, Rockwell hasn’t been shy about criticizing Siri, according to people familiar with the matter. For years, he has pitched senior vice presidents on ideas for overhauling the voice assistant to make it more personalized. He has also been advising the AI group in recent weeks....