Apple has been expanding its presence in the AI and health sectors, aiming to broaden its influence in these rapidly growing fields. Its latest initiative merges these efforts by enhancing the Apple Health app, integrating the product ecosystem's health insights to deliver personalized, actionable advice.
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In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg correspondent and Apple watcher Mark Gurman shared the details of Project Mulberry, the codename for a completely revamped Health app featuring an AI agent meant to replicate the insights a doctor can give patients based on their biometric data.
Project Mulberry
With Project Mulberry, the Health app will continue to gather data from a user's ecosystem of Apple devices, including their Apple Watch, earbuds, iPhone, and more. The AI coach will then use that information to offer personalized recommendations on how they can improve their health, according to the report. The data used to train the AI agent and inform the responses will include real insights from physicians on staff.
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Other features of the app will include food tracking, workout form critiques facilitated by the AI agent and the device's back camera, and videos from physicians that explain certain health conditions and suggest lifestyle improvements.
Apple is opening a facility near Oakland, California, where outside doctors from a range of specialties, including sleep, nutrition, physical therapy, mental health, and cardiology, will be able to create the aforementioned videos, according to the report. Apple is also looking for a "major doctor personality" to host the new service, dubbed by some internal sources "Health+."
Top priority
Gurman first reported on this project years ago, when it was dubbed Project Quartz, but it is now a top priority. According to the report, it could be released as early as iOS 19.4, which is scheduled for the spring or summer of next year.
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The idea of using AI for health metrics is not new, and several other fitness wearable hardware makers have implemented similar models into their offerings. For example, Whoop has an AI coach powered by ChatGPT, which serves as a conversational chatbot that can deliver personalized recommendations and fitness coaching based on the user's data.
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Just today, Oura followed suit, releasing its own version, Oura Advisor. This AI health coach gives Oura app subscribers access to a personal health chatbot using the biometric data Oura collects through smart ring usage.
Generative AI models have two major strengths that make them particularly suitable for health data: their ability to sift through robust amounts of data quickly and their conversational capabilities, which can understand and output conversational queries. As a result, you can expect Apple's development to be part of a larger trend, with more wearable companies implementing similar AI offerings.
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