Business Insider, citing sources, reported on the 10th (local time) that OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is considering entering the healthcare sector.
According to the report, OpenAI is reviewing the development of consumer health tools, including a personal health assistant and health data aggregation services. The move is seen as based on the observation that there are many health care and medical-related questions for ChatGPT. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in Aug. when unveiling the latest GPT-5 that it "can help users with health care as well."
Earlier, in Jun., OpenAI hired Nate Gross, co-founder of the medical platform Doximity, and two months later recruited Instagram Vice President Ashley Alexander to serve as vice president of health-related products. At HLTH, a digital health care expo held last month, Gross said ChatGPT has 800 million weekly users, and a significant number are asking medical-related questions.
A venture capital firm official who attended the exhibition at the time said, "People perceive OpenAI and Anthropic as a much bigger threat than Amazon or Microsoft," adding, "Because OpenAI and Anthropic moved much faster in expanding into every field."
OpenAI did not offer an official position on this.
Business Insider noted that OpenAI would need to resolve regulatory issues first to enter medical-related fields. That is because Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Apple, which previously sought to enter this field, either dropped their businesses due to regulatory issues or scaled them back from their original goals.
In fact, Verily, Google's health technology subsidiary, was sued by a former executive for allegedly using patients' health data without authorization and concealing it.