Now consider how helpful it would be if a doctor could give you real-time health advice tailored specifically for you, right from your pocket, based on your daily activities. This is precisely what Apple is aiming for with its newest project, the health initiative “Project Mulberry.” Reports suggest that an AI health coach will become a reality by next year, available to users with iOS version 19 on their iPhones.
Apple Mulberry and Ongoing Health Initiatives:
Project Mulberry is a step further in Apple’s continuous effort to better integrate health monitoring features into their devices. With the release of the iPhone, Apple began to offer basic features like counting the user’s steps, and with the introduction of the Apple Watch, the user’s heart rate was monitored as well. Now Project Mulberry integrates all of these precursors to artificial intelligence, allowing users even greater personal health customization.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s new AI health coach will take advantage of all the data—fitness and health data users store on their iPhones, Apple Watches, and other readily available devices. Not only does it save you the hassle of going to a clinic, but with the new AI, health-related information will no longer be provided to you in raw form, but rather, properly collated with actionable advice specifically designed for you.
Having a Virtual Doctor as Close as Your Phone
How does this virtual physician function? Consider for a moment your health app. If your heart rate trends suggest an upcoming issue, wouldn’t it be great if the app not only showed you the numbers but also provided a custom, expert-created heart disease risk video? This would go a long way in ensuring people understand the disease and take proactive measures.
To facilitate this form of guidance, Apple is allegedly in the process of building a video production facility in California. There, apple doctors will produce instructional material that will be used by AI health coaches to make tailored recommendations. Apple is even said to be looking for a renowned physician to endorse the service, which, according to some insiders, is already being dubbed as “Health+” internally.
More Than Just Advanced Metrics: Main Requirements
Project Mulberry has additional goals apart from analyzing the cumulated information. It seeks to improve the performance of the Health app in the following neglected areas:
Nutrition: Apple is wading into the deep waters of nutrition tracking, a domain it has shied away from until now. The AI doctor will assist users to monitor their food intake, potentially giving popular nutrition and fitness applications such as MyFitnessPal and Noom some competition.
Workout Observations: Through the lens of an iPhone, the AI will evaluate your workout movements and provide suggestions. In the future, this feature may merge with Apple’s Fitness+ service, offering AI evaluation of exercise technique.
Additional Specialized Knowledge: Apple is expanding their workforce to include physicians of various specializations such as sleep, nutrition, mental healthcare, and cardiology. These professionals will develop the educational content and build the interface for the AI’s suggestions.
Apple’s Strategic Moves in Healthcare: A Long Game
Apple has been trying for years to make a huge change in healthcare. Some of their previous projects included an attempt to create a glucose monitor that is non-invasively detectable for diabetes and automated blood pressure monitoring. These projects, however, have been postponed.
This AI health coach, with its earliest possible launch, might help Apple achieve its goals in providing healthcare services.
What is the anticipated date for the AI doctor’s release?
If everything goes as planned, the feature could be available for use in iOS 19, which is likely to be released around spring or summer 2025.
Data Gathering Goals:
Project title: Project Mulberry
Suspected release: iOS 19 (spring or summer 2025)
Primary abilities: health coach using AI, workout and nutrition analysis, video lessons
Fields of expertise: cardiology, mental health, nutrition, sleep
