1. One thing that helps
I’m a health-tech-wearables-data nerd. It’s a thing. My Oura ring talks to my Garmin watch, which is connected to my Google Fit app. I love the data these devices provide on my health, fitness, and sleep and how they inform me to make changes that improve my life. Conflicting with this is my obsession with data privacy. I consciously decided to give these companies data that could easily be misused. I hope the consequences for misuse or leaks of health data are scary enough to keep them honest.
Now, Sam Altman (Open AI) and Arianna Huffington (Thrive Global) are joining forces to create Thrive AI Health, a personal AI health coach. This AI will be trained on peer-reviewed science and medical data that you’re willing to share with it. This means the chatbot will make personalized recommendations of lifestyle modifications that will improve your health.
Like everything in the AI world, the more data you provide, the more accurate it will be. The app will help users improve their sleep, food, movement, stress management, and social connections. By training on the user’s habits, medical records, and preferences, the app will offer ‘nudges’ to influence the user’s behaviour.
Technology and health are a perfect match, and I support any movement aimed at behaviour change and early intervention to prevent health issues. Just be sure you know what data you are sharing and how it might be used.
2. One to be wary of
You walk into the office and take a peek at the organizational chart. You see “ChatGPT” listed as “Manager.” How would you feel?
That’s precisely the situation workers faced at Lattice, a human resource software company. Workers were surprised to see “digital workers” in their organizational charts and to be given employee records. Lattice treats AI like a human hire by training, onboarding, and assigning roles. Understandably, humans pushed back, leading to the policy being shelved—for now.
I see the problem not as AI being treated more like humans but as humans being treated more like resources. Oh the humanity! 🙂
What do you think? Is it proper for companies to assign AI roles and give them privileges that humans typically enjoy? Would you push back if your manager is an AI? Or is it time to acknowledge that your next coworker could be AI?
It’s mind-boggling that this has even started to be talked about.
3. One to amaze
I’ll say it first: This smiling robot face is creepy.
That face is made of cultured skin cells. It’s put on top of a 3D-printed resin base with collagen scaffolds. What’s unique here is that the face also has the equivalent of ligaments that hold it in place. These perforation-type anchors, as they are technically called, allow tiny v-shaped cavities to fill with living tissues. This allows for the face to seemingly smile and presumably also frown.
Researchers are interested in creating realistic robotic skin because they want robots to communicate effectively with humans. A lifelike smile or frown can do much in conveying auditory and visual cues and would be very useful in health care and aged care.
Amazingly, this research benefits the cosmetic industry as well as robotics. Cosmetic tests can be performed on realistic skin, which is especially useful for testing anti-wrinkle products, as it can form wrinkles like the real deal.
“Not tested on animals” might soon become “Not tested on smiling robots”.