Deep View: Apple’s go an AI ‘coach’ on the way

Posted on April 1, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
Apple’s got an AI health ‘coach’ on the way
An older image of Apple’s Health App. Source: Apple
Apple is working on a big revamp of its Health app, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a revamp that will include an AI-powered health coach. And it’s set to launch with IOS 19.4, an update set to go live sometime in the first half of 2026. 
The details: According to Gurman, the effort — nicknamed Project Mulberry — has been in the works for years. The general idea is that the Health app will collect all sorts of data from across a user’s Apple ecosystem, data that will then be processed by an AI health coach to provide personalized health recommendations. 
Apple is currently training the system with data from in-house doctors, and plans to bring in more doctors — experts across sleep, nutrition, mental health and cardiology — to make custom videos for the app.The plan, reportedly, is for this to expand into food tracking and fitness tracking, where Apple would use iPhone cameras and AI systems to provide pointers on exercise technique and form. 
According to Gurman, the project is currently the top priority for Apple’s Health team.
Apple did not return a request for comment on the report. 
Going deeper: This rather succinctly highlights a major tension in the integration of AI in healthcare. In order for these algorithms to work as advertised, they need constant access to an enormous, ceaseless stream of data, which raises numerous questions over data privacy and data security. 
For a company that has always prided itself on privacy, such an integration isn’t easy to pull off. And at this stage, it’s not clear how Apple plans to navigate this environment; will it do all computing on-device? Is that even possible for something like this? If not, how will it guarantee its Cloud is genuinely secure? How will Apple ensure it doesn’t gather data on people beyond the specific user (other folks walking around in the gym, for instance)? And what happens if governments or insurance companies want to gain access to those highly specific insights? 
I will add to this that reliability remains an unsolved problem in most modern AI applications. In speaking of “agents,” the assumption is Apple will be leveraging language models, which are known to get stuff wrong; and when it comes to building trust among users for health recommendations, I’d say the room for error is zero but the capacity for error is high.  
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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